"Gubernatorial candidate Baker downplays role in financing of Big Dig" by Martin Finucane, Globe Staff | August 12, 2009
Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles D. Baker downplayed yesterday his past involvement in the financing of the Big Dig, seeking to distance himself from the costly project as Democrats try to make it an issue in the 2010 campaign.
Oh, really?
See: Massachusetts Democrats Keep Making the Same Mistakes
CANCEL THAT as a CAMPAIGN ISSUE!!!!
In a live chat yesterday on the Globe’s website, boston.com, Baker said the project was a “25-year financial headache for all involved, Democrats and Republicans alike.’’
Baker pointed out that he was state secretary for administration and finance for four years, from 1994 to 1998, and that he had already moved on to his job at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in 2000, when cost overruns on the Big Dig came to light....
The project’s most startling cost overruns, a hidden $1.4 billion, were disclosed in 2000, after Baker stepped down as secretary. But the first of the project’s three peak spending years began in 1998, before Baker left, when costs reached $4 million a day. The overall projected price tag had already reached $10.8 billion by the time he left. It would eventually reach $15 billion.
Yesterday, Baker blamed the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority for issuing swaptions, complex credit transactions, in 2002 and 2003, saying it “screwed up their financials.’’
I like this guy because HE UNDERSTANDS!!!
Oh, YES, Massachusetts is in DESPERATE NEED of a REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR!!!
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