Massachusetts once again bailing out...itself

State Tries to Rescue Pike From Huge Debt

The timing of this couldn't be better - this week, Governor Deval Patrick signed the 2008-2009 Massachusetts fiscal budget into law. No one realized that there was an $800Million shortfall for our highway system?

Fact is, our state government has become so corrupt that these little "details" get glossed over. Who cares if there isn't enough money to plow the roads - they're made of cement, they'll be fine. We need more social welfare programs, we need to help illegals become members of our community, we need medicaid so all the older folks will keep voting for us since young people are leaving the state (hm, wonder why that could be). Never mind the fact that our best & brightest are leaving the state; as long as we keep raking in tax money, we'll be fine....right?

And yet, I can't help but feel the Turnpike Authority had this coming. The folks that work at toll booths and that get paid large sums of money and crazy pensions just to plug holes in the ground, have been living like pigs for decades now. And what about those tolls? Massachusetts collects an amazing amount of toll money each year, and the tolls closer to Boston continue to rise. There's no outrage over tolls that were supposed to disappear decades ago because people are used to paying them, so a little increase here or there never hurt. And yet they don't have $800Million to bail themselves out? It probably went to a total of about four executives' pensions.

It's no wonder larger corporations are moving further up Route 3 and even away from Waltham these days - less expense for their employees to get to work, less traffic, less headache dealing with the bureaucratic Boston gridlock each day.