“The bills just don’t go far enough,” Patrick told reporters after emerging from a meeting with House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray.
(…)
Murray, who left the meeting in DeLeo’s office shortly after Patrick, sharply disagreed.
“I think we probably have a difference of opinion on that,” she said.”…I’m a little confused. He just gave us a spreadsheet and we said we’d go and look at it.”
She also criticized the administration’s approach to managing the flow of news about potential MBTA cutbacks because of revenue shortfalls, calling it “a scare tactic” that is “not the right way to go.”
The Senate transportation chairman also criticized the governor’s approach.
“We’re not going to reform so we get a good headline in the newspaper, we’re going to reform so that we change things going forward,” said Senator Steven A. Baddour, a Methuen Democrat and chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation. “This doesn’t help the negotiations. It doesn’t help coming out with a final product”
You’re confused Madame President? You need to look over a spreadsheet before you know whether or not your reform bill offers any savings? Let me ask then – are you involved in this process or have you handed over the reins to Sen. Baddour? Because if that’s the case, then you need to take them back, as your chairman does not appear too interested in doing anything other than making sure his district doesn’t have to pay new tolls when driving back and forth from New Hampshire.
Sen. Baddour, so far the most significant “change” I’m seeing for you to put your name on is the 52 million fewer riders the T will have next year. You need to specify whether you want to “change things going forward” for the better or worse.
People in this state need Real Solutions to the transportation crisis that is staring us down right now. It’s been building for decades ignored by both the executive and legislative branches of our state government. Now it’s on the doorsteps of the State House. Seems to me that the Governor has proposed a solution that begins to address the problems. The House leadership, while not as eager as the Gov to jump on board, at least isn’t burying their head in the sand like the Senate. I’d love to see a little more willingness from Wagner to approach revenue, but at least he hasn’t taken obstructionism to the level that the Senate has.
So Sens. Murray and Baddour, you’ve got a choice. You can either stand up with real solutions that address the problems facing the whole state, or you can continue to play politics while not actually doing anything to help.
Your move.
What is sad about this whole situation is that Sen Baddour has been chair of the Senate transportation committee for almost a decade.
<
p>From his comments this past year, you would think that he just found out there is even a dispute that someone believes there is a transportation funding issues. Otherwise, why didn’t he address this problem over the past 8 years of this time as Sen transportation chair.
<
p>Sen Baddour will tell you that his plan can save $5B over over 20 years.
<
p>Unfortunately, that still leaves a hole of $14 B over 20 years according to multiple transportation studies.
<
p>So if you are playing a game with numbers, why doesn’t he say his plan saves $500 Billion over 2,000 years.
Back then, the car was king, and Eisenhower money was pouring in to build the inter-state highway system. The contributions that public transportation makes to quality of life, public health, long-term land use planning, and regional competitiveness, now well-know to pretty much everyone, have fallen on deaf ears in Baddour.
<
p>The MBTA is the 5th largest regional transportation system in the country. Right now, it is like a heavily overweight smoker who is midst of suffering a massive heart attack. Yes, we need to completely change its ways, get it exercising, stop the smoking, and eat better foods. I’m talking pension reform, structural reform, transparent budeting, open meetings, etc. But we also need to intervene with oxygen and acute care to get through this crisis — I’m taking revenues. But Baddour’s goal seems to be simpler: pretend to be helping so you are aren’t blamed when it dies.
<
p>Don’t forget that the Transportation Committee’s poor work has forced the federal government to put on hold billions in funds that we could be using right now to improve and extend the MBTA and other transit systems, and fix roads. The feds almost never do this, only when a state is acting with extreme fiscal irresponsibility.
The “patient” has now flat-lined, and we’re seeing putrefaction of the extremities.
<
p>If federal transportation funding is available, why isn’t the Governor’s office talking more about it?
<
p>I’d like to know what portion of Governor Patrick’s schedule for yesterday was directly related to securing funding for the MBTA. What was Mr. Aloisi doing yesterday?
<
p>What is on the schedule for Governor Patrick and Mr. Aloisi today?
<
p>Oh, and from another thread — how do Governor Patrick and Mr. Aloisi get to and from work? The Green line seemed to operate more smoothly during the Dukakis administration.
We are late to the party, but we know when we see it. Can’t wait for the leak to the Herald about Aliosi’s sister shaking the vending machine to get a bag of Sun Chips.
<
p>I agree that the MBTA story is a plant from Patrick’s admin, and I’m done with the scare tactics too.
<
p>But it’s the lege that watered down the reform not Patrick. So to the lege, enough with the BS leaks and do your job!
it was already taken away from us.
<
p>not the gov’s fault. If Eury didn’t make that clear with this post, I don’t know who could. Quite frankly, the feds didn’t think the MBTA could afford its share of the project costs. they were right.
We are seeing what “reform before revenue” is code for, an excuse for doing nothing.
Why would someone who doesn’t live near or use the state’s major public transportation systems ever be made head of the transportation committee? Unless the goal is to kill public transportation, I don’t get it.
<
p>Eury, thanks for this great post. It’s time for reasonable adults to take over for things in the Senate. I’m not sure Baddour and Murray are cut out for it.
The comment by Baddour saying that so be it that there could be MBTA service reductions because the rest of the economy is suffering and therefore the MBTA should as well shows that he doesn’t understand the point of transportation. It is about all aspects of mobility – not just physical mobility as in getting A to B.
<
p>Transportation is the means by which someone enjoys all of which our society has to offer: social and economic mobility. With service reductions there is a heap load of injustice thrown down on the users who no longer can be users because their service options were just halved.
<
p>Some people don’t look upon mass transit as “alternative transportation” – rather their mainline connection to work, school, church, grocery shopping etc.
<
p>This is to entirely avoid the dialogue about people who have the means to revert back to their autos but were taking transit as a means to do the right thing environmentally. If service reductions go into place then our environment will suffer as will our capability to move forward in an effort to move away from heavy fossil fuel use.
<
p>Uggh. I’m frustrated!