Sunday, July 20, 2008
Speaking of Jerry Williams, I remember back in the day listening to Jerry screaming about the Big Dig and saying that before it was done it would cost 10...no $15 billion! Aw, c'mon Jerry, you're just making it up now...that's just crazy talk! He knew the politicians would never be able to manage the money, that they lie about costs like mad.
Jeff Jacoby gets in to the latest estimates today:
JAWS CLENCHED, blood pressures spiked, and radio talk-show hosts spontaneously combusted when the Globe reported last week that the $15 billion Big Dig - formerly known as the $12.2 billion Big Dig, and more formerly as the $7.7 billion Big Dig, and even, once upon a time, as the $2.5 billion Big Dig - will in fact cost a staggering $22 billion and not be paid off until 2038.
The Page 1 story was filled with infuriating details, such as the revelation that 80 percent of Massachusetts Highway Department employees are being paid with borrowed money. Bay State politicians originally sold voters on the Big Dig in part by assuring them that Washington would pick up 90 percent of the cost...
Our two Senators have gotten off scot-free in the equation. They somehow manage to blame the Turnpike Authority chairman, but never the politicians: Are we angry enough to fight back?
It will never end - not until the suckers get riled up enough to fight back. Not until they start throwing incumbents out of office, instead of blindly reelecting them. Not until they stop letting themselves be treated as ATMs for politicians and doormats for public-employee unions. Not until they force their public "servants" to defer to them, instead of the other way around.
Honestly, I'd thought it had hit $35 billion. $22B seems like positive news to me.
Anyway, I'm less concerned about the final price tag than about the fact that we're back to bumper-to-bumper traffic anyway. I'd rather they'd have spent twice as much and gotten adequate capacity.
Jacoby also talks about some of the scandals with pensions. Thanks to the clout of the unions, disability retirements pay policemen, firemen and some others their full salary, tax-free. In the private sector, Long Term Disability typically pays about 60% of salary, and that may or not be taxable. (Taxable if the employer pays the LTD insurance premium, not taxed if the employee does.)
And to make matters worse, a lot of retirees get pensions based on "Queen for a Day" salaries. The pension is based on their last salary, so they get promoted to a higher-paying job just before retirement. For example, a fireman may fill in as an acting Chief for a day and then retire on a Chief's salary.
It's quite a racket.
Voting to repeal the income tax in the referendum in November is a good way to register your protest against all the abuses, incompetence, cronyism and mismanglement that characterize our state gummint.