Central MA Transportation

Sunday, March 01, 2009

What Grownups Know

“Grownups know that you can’t have something for nothing.” - Deval Patrick

The flip side of governor Patrick's statement is that grownups expect to get something for the taxes and fees they're charged by their government.

The reported breakdown on the 19 cent proposed hike in the Massachusetts gasoline tax is as follows:
  • 6 cents - Averts MBTA service cuts and fare increases

    Could it be that T riders need to grow up.

  • 4 cents - Averts proposed toll hikes

    Could it be that Mass Pike users need to grow up.

  • 3 cents - Rail projects outside of Boston

    Could it be that Commuter Rail riders need to grow up.

  • 2 cents - Ends practice of paying for personnel by borrowing

    Could it be that state officials that believe it is OK to borrow to meet payroll then pass the costs on to motorists need to grow up.

  • 1.5 cents - Funds for regional transit authorities

    Could it be that public transportation users need to grow up.

  • 1.5 cents - Targeted regional road projects

    WooHoo nearly 8 percent of the proposed increase will help pay for road and bridge infrastructure. That may be a premature woohoo as past history tells us the money allocated for highway infrastructure has been used elsewhere and that is why we’re in this mess.

  • 1 cent - Funds innovative gas and toll solutions

    I think that Deval Patrick needs to Grow Up and stop looking for ways to take more money from Grownups to subsidize those that expect someone else to pay their fair share.




Here are some excerpts from CNN State of the Union with John King - Interview With Governors Barbour, Patrick which aired on February 22, 2009.

PATRICK: Look, I think that what the people want is candor. They want us to be honest about what the cost of the services that they say they want actually is. That's what we're trying to do in Massachusetts. Just this last week...

KING: But you say -- I want to show this headline as you speak, Governor, because you're taking some heat back home. This is "The Boston Herald." My first job was delivering this newspaper many years ago.

PATRICK: Yes.

KING: "Just Gas-tly."

PATRICK: Look at you now, John.

KING: I tell everybody, get a job delivering "The Herald." Nineteen cent tax rip-off, they are calling it on the front page of "The Boston Herald." You have to make tough choices.

PATRICK: They are miserable choices. And it's not, you know, it's not a joyful decision, but it's that or substantial cuts in services in mass transit, as well as fare increases, or doubling of the tolls on the turnpike.

I have put all of that out there, and we are dealing, frankly, with 16 years of a lack of stewardship, where we took debt from the Big Dig project and stashed it away in all kinds of places and told people they could have things without paying for it.

That bill is now due. And so I am just trying to be candid with the people of Massachusetts about what our choices really are. And none of them are particularly pleasant. But grown-ups that know you can't have something for nothing.

There’s that Grownups quote again.

Oh and about that “16 years of a lack of stewardship”, it’s unfair to blame transportation infrastructure problems on the Romney, Swift, Cellucci, and Weld administrations. Our democrat controlled legislature votes along party lines and Bill Weld was the last Governor that had enough republicans in the state senate to sustain a gubernatorial veto, and he lost that during his term. The misappropriation of money to maintain highway infrastructure is squarely on the shoulders of the democrat controlled legislature.

The only change is that we now have a governor that is as clueless as our legislators. In truth they’re not clueless, they just believe that you are. If you're unable to see through the inconsistency in the governor's remarks and the unfairness of his proposal to charge motorists for the benefits received by non-highway transportation users then they are correct.