As he has from the start, Governor Romney is employing one tactic in coping with the latest furor over the Big Dig–go after Turnpike Chairman Matt Amorello.
This isn’t to defend Amorello. He’s never done the right things to restore confidence in the safety of the tunnels.
But the governor himself vetoed $31 million in Central Artery/Tunnel operations and maintenance funding in the just-enacted FY 07 budget. You can find it in his veto message, which is posted on the Gov’s Office website. It’s line item 1599-1970.
In approving the budget, the conference committe authorized $56 million for a Turnpike Authority reserve for O&M costs incurred in the previous fiscal year. Romney cut that back to $25 million.
Romney has made a number of cold-hearted vetoes in the FY07 budget of money for the poor and disabled. Vetoing O&M money for the Central Artery project is just plain foolish.
Romney would add that to the list of why he should be fired immediately.
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Maybe Romney should just fire himself and take care of his Potomac Fever? Let’s ask the SJC if Romney can legally fire himself and “Hands-On” Healey? Turnpike Commissioner Levy is saying that Governor Romney and Lt. Governor Healey have never asked for any documents in three and a half years in the corner office.
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I can see the ad now, “We’re watching you tax dollars, we cut $25 million out of the Turnpike budget for ongoing maintence, because we’re good managers and we have declared the tunnels safe (see press releases) on many occasions.”
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PS It looks like there are duplicate posts on the sidebar, if the other is a duplicate, maybe you can delete it…
Yeah, I accidentally posted it twice and couldn’t find a delete button. It appears someone has done it.