Friends, it is time to call a spade a spade. Charlie Baker is a failed leader. He will say whatever necessary to win a vote. But his inability to lead hurts you and the ones you love every day– whether you realize it or not.
We gave Charlie a chance and he failed. Charlie Baker has proven he lacks the leadership to affect needed and positive change in Massachusetts. The status quo is not the aspiration of a leader. Yet, the status quo is the best we can hope for from Charlie Baker. The status quo in Massachusetts is simply not acceptable.
It seems like every week, there’s another set of delays and scandals with Charlie Baker’s MBTA. This can’t go on—we can’t afford to pay the price for his lack of leadership.
Under Charlie Baker’s leadership, or lack thereof, our entire public transportation system is severely underfunded and mismanaged, and it is showing. Regional transit authorities are forced to hike fares while cutting service, multiple commuter rail lines are disabled or delayed almost every week, and ridership on the T is going down, not up as it grows more unreliable by the day. Charlie Baker is the only sitting Governor in America to preside over and be responsible for the complete shutdown of an entire public transportation system. His slow and ineffective response over the last 3 years has highlighted the lack of leadership Massachusetts taxpayers and public transportation riders can expect from this Governor.
Charlie Baker’s management failures are costing us financially and perhaps worse, by costing the business community millions in terms of lost productivity. The MBTA Control Board recently reported that Baker’s “botched rollout” of a private call center contract to schedule rides for passengers with disabilities is “one example of several initiatives that are yielding less cost-savings in fiscal 2018 than expected.” The T’s General Manager even revealed that “T staff had not pursued the other [cost-saving] initiatives because they were focused on the ‘crisis’ with Global,” the private call center contractor that has still not been replaced.
Despite poor service and failed cost-saving initiatives, Charlie Baker and his MBTA leadership continue to push for fare hikes and parking fee increases. “Now, you citizens [of Massachusetts], don’t you think it’s a scandal how the people have to pay and pay?”
This administration continues to push for South Station expansion, a multi-billion-dollar band-aid and waste of taxpayer money, that will only temporarily solve capacity for half of our commuter rail system, at best. Instead, smart leadership would pursue the commonsense approach of uniting the entire regional rail system and increase capacity through the North South Rail Link, making jobs throughout the region accessible to everyone, not to mention the economic benefits such a solution brings to the communities and employers all along the entire rail system in Massachusetts.
It’s time for Massachusetts taxpayers to be served by a Governor who will lead with more than his empty promise of “increased investment in transportation” when his budget makes no such increase in funding. It’s time for Massachusetts voters to demand a Governor that will take decisive action and make transformative investments in our public transportation system and create a system we can all be proud of and rely on to get to work, school, doctor appointments and the like.
As Governor Patrick often reminded us, “we get the government we deserve” and Massachusetts deserves better. The question is will Massachusetts voters step up in growing numbers to demand real leadership and earn the better government we deserve? They will only be motivated to do so if we help them see that this Governor is failing us all.
Respectfully,
Mike Lake
P.S. to put a light spin on this sad reality, enjoy the Kingston Trio singing about the T’s fare hikes of the past…
Christopher says
Regarding your headline, there may be a certain BMG editor who might “resemble that remark”!:)
Charley on the MTA says
Spelled differently. Different guy, obvs.
fredrichlariccia says
” Ridicule is a man’s most potent weapon.”
Saul Alinsky’s ” Rules for Radicals”
Well said, Mike ! Thank you for sharing your thoughtful critique with us. As a proud, lifelong progressive, Kennedy Democrat ( Jack, Bobby and Ted ) it takes courage in this state to take issue with Weathervane Charlie. But I know you share the view that : ” To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.” ANON
jconway says
I too am glad to welcome Mike Lake back to the conversation. This is exactly the kind of attack our nominee has to make over and over again. This is a do nothing Governorship, plain and simple, enabled by a do nothing legislature. People may enjoy the controversy free low tax autopilot for another term, but the risk to the long term future of our state is too great.
We need someone who gets the “vision thing” and is not simply a game manager like Flacco, but a playmaker like Brady or Rodgers. The T is breaking down today, the climate is hurting our city and state today, inequality is driving opioid deaths and racial tensions today, housing costs are going up today. We need a governor willing to tackle these challenges today, not delay action until future taxpayers have to clean it up.
mikelake says
Thank you for welcoming me back. For all the reasons you mention above, this administration is a waste. While Charlie Baker and Karen Polito act like Ed McMahon carrying Publishers Clearing House checks to folks across the state, he distracts the public from his lack of leadership and the grave costs that he is causing us to pay– not the least of which is the number of lives lost due to addiction (treatment programs for which Charlie Baker cut funding while in the middle of an epidemic).
That being said, Charlie Baker is not the only problem… we, the public, are also to blame. We have not demanded more. We have let our lack of criticism be confused with approval. We have allowed his popularity to grow without him having to earn it.
We need to hold him accountable. And his 3-year honeymoon with the media has to come to an end. We need people to understand what he has done, what he has not done and what negative impacts he has had. Who cares if he shaved his head again?!?