Governor Deval Patrick has this idea to “dismantle the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and cut all tolls west of Route 128 except at two state border crossings,” reports the Boston Herald.
Under the plan, expected to be unveiled later this week, Turnpike operations west of Route 128 would be folded into the Massachusetts Highway Department. Operations within Route 128, the so-called Metropolitan Highway System, would be folded into the Massachusetts Port Authority.
Massport already runs the Mystic Tobin Bridge and tunnels leading to and from Logan International Airport.
The plan is an attempt to improve efficiency and try to mollify public complaints amid talk of toll hikes necessary to repair aging infrastructure and pay off the debt of the nearly $15 billion Central Artery project, said the officials, both of whom demanded anonymity in advance of the governor’s formal announcement.
One said dismantling the Pike “would keep a promise to the taxpayers,” especially western Massachusetts drivers who have complained about being saddled with Big Dig costs despite long-broken promises that Pike tolls would be eliminated once the roadway’s original construction bonds were paid off.
According to the plan, tolls likely will be raised inside Route 128, whose drivers make the most use of the Central Artery and its underground system of highways and airport connections. One proposal discussed by the Turnpike board in September called for raising tunnel tolls by $5, from $3.50 to $8.50, and increasing tolls at the Allston-Brighton Turnpike interchange by $1, to $2.25.
Toll booths outside Route 128 will be eliminated, except in West Stockbridge near the New York border and in Sturbridge, close to Connecticut where Interstate 84 meets the Pike. Drivers in passenger cars have not had to pay tolls between Exit 1, in West Stockbridge, and Exit 6, in Springfield, since 1997.
The change would extend the non-tolling area from Exit 7, in Ludlow, through Weston and on to Exit 15 in Newton, where tolls currently are paid only by westbound drivers. It also would drop tolls not only on passenger cars but commercial vehicles in that zone.
I know I’ve heard this idea before…but where?
Oh, wait, now I remember…
[Turnpike] Board member Mary Connaughton, who was appointed by former Gov. Mitt Romney, said the plan “sounded very much like what Gov. Romney proposed two years ago.”
Amazing.
Tags: Boston Herald, broken promises, Deval Patrick, Mitt Romney
November 11th, 2008
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it… And if John Kerry has his way this country would have another FDR-style New Deal.
The nation’s battered economy needs an old-fashioned “Rooseveltian lift” of regulatory reforms and government spending on the infrastructure, clean energy and other sectors, U.S. Sen. John Kerry said yesterday.
Kerry, facing a re-election challenge from Republican Jeff Beatty, rejected GOP calls for more tax rebates to stimulate the economy, as was done last spring.
“I am for a stimulus package. I am not for a stimulus package that just sends out checks,” said Kerry at a Boston Herald editorial meeting yesterday.
Instead, Kerry said the nation needs to spend more in areas that will both help the economy in the short run and long run - such as on roads and bridges, clean energy initiatives and life sciences.
Calling current financial woes the most “complicated economic time we’ve had since the Great Depression,” Kerry said new approaches are needed to reform the current financial system.
Obviously, John Kerry doesn’t know a thing about history or economics. If he did he would know that FDRs New Deal (which included tax increases, bank consolidations, higher tariffs and forced unionization amongst other things) prolonged The Great Depression rather than got the country out of it.
If that is something Kerry wants to happen again, then how could anyone possibly vote for him?
Tags: Boston Herald, Jeff Beatty, John Kerry
October 25th, 2008
Ditto:
Another sobering start to an exceedingly sobering week - but one which points to the need for a political leader who is steady in the face of crisis, mature in judgment and able to reach across the aisle to break the gridlock that has for too long gripped Washington.
That man is Sen. John McCain and at this critical moment in history, this paper is pleased to endorse his candidacy for president of the United States.
McCain won a lot of hearts and minds around here in 2000, and we can’t help but wonder how history might have been different had he won his party’s nomination and the White House back then.
But there is no going back. There is only the future and it is impossible to envision the future of this great nation being put in the hands of an articulate but inexperienced first-term senator from Illinois.
Being commander in chief isn’t the place for on-the-job training; it’s a job for someone who has already proven his leadership skills - in battle, as a prisoner of war and during more than two decades on the floor of the Senate.
Read the entire endorsement.
Tags: Boston Herald, John McCain
September 30th, 2008
The pro-marijuana group, the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy, is upset that the Boston Herald revealed that George Soros provides their funding and for suggesting their initiative has ulterior motives.
Backers of a ballot question to decriminalize some pot possession fired back at charges that their initiative is a gateway for weaker drug laws - and took aim at the Herald for uncovering who’s funding the movement.
“(The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy) does not support marijuana ‘legalization’ or endorse or condone marijuana use, as the Herald is well aware” wrote campaign manager Whitney Taylor in an e-mail.
Taylor, who would not be interviewed, also wrote: “The Herald’s effort to confuse Bay Staters into thinking Question 2 is about marijuana legalization is a disservice to voters.”
The Herald reported yesterday that the ballot committee received 30 percent of its money from the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C., group that promotes legal, over-the-counter sales of marijuana.
Overall, $400,000 - 63 percent - of the $635,000 it raised came from George Soros, a billionaire philanthropist. He is on the board of the Drug Policy Alliance Network, a New York group that backs legalization of marijuana.
What wrong with letting the public whose minds you’re trying to influence who is the financial backer of your group? Are they ashamed of George Soros or his money? Why are they so upset about this being reported? People like to know what lobbyists have a financial hold on politicians, why not advocacy groups, too? It’s only fair, seeing as all their money is coming from groups that support the legalization of marijuana, and they claim they don’t support that cause.
Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone said it’s fair to scrutinize the money behind the movement.
“The fact that Question 2 is being financed by activists who support over-the-counter marijuana is further evidence that they have a larger, pro-drug mission,” Leone said in a statement.
Exactly.
Tags: Boston Herald, Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy, George Soros, marijuana, Marijuana Policy Project
September 25th, 2008
