"Its workers to get raise, but T funding in doubt" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | July 9, 2008
The MBTA, which recently depleted its rainy-day fund to plug a $75 million budget deficit, learned this week that it is facing an additional $150 million in wage increases and back pay over the next two years, and officials acknowledged they do not know how they will pay for it.
An arbitrator gave T management a major victory this week in its negotiations with its largest union, requiring retirees to contribute to their healthcare costs for the first time and requiring all employees to pay a bigger share of the costs.
I know it's all state $$$$, but why are workers always getting screwed?
As I have written, the elites running this thing are living it up!
While the T knew that raises were likely as part of these contract negotiations, it had not set aside money to cover the cost. The arbitrator's ruling presents a new complication for an agency that was already living a paycheck-to-paycheck existence, tapping credit to meet basic expenses, even as high gas prices send more commuters to public transit.
I'm so sick of this wasteful, incompetent state government!
Please don't come to Massachusetts if you know what is good for you, America!
Transit advocates fear there will be another fare increase unless the Legislature steps in to help the T with its multibillion-dollar debt.
And the PUBLIC TAKES it in the rump again!!!!
"I don't begrudge the unions their money, but I just have no idea where the money's going to come from," said Paul Regan, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board, which represents the cities and towns served by the T.
The Boston Carmen's Union Local 589, which represents 3,600 workers and more than 60 percent of the T's labor force, had been without a contract for two years. The union's wages and benefits are among the largest in the industry.
I'd expect the agenda-pushing, pro-authority Boston Globe to do just that!
Yup, those pampered union guys, uh-huh!
PFFFFFFFTTTTT!
Peace's ruling required the T's retirees to contribute 10 percent toward their healthcare costs for the first time. Previously, retirees and their families got free healthcare for life, a benefit unheard of for most American workers. Workers, both active and retirees, will also see an increase in their co-payments.
"We don't view the wage adjustments or the retroactivity as exorbitant," said Steve MacDougall, president of the carmen's union. "We believe they were modest and appropriate. If someone were to ask me if I was surprised about the healthcare stuff: No, we're not surprised."
Well, if you guys are happy with it, I won't complain.
MacDougall said he is concerned about the T's financial health. But long-term debt and expansion are the source of the problem, not labor costs, he said."
In the latest clash in an increasingly public quarrel, Mayor Thomas M. Menino called on Boston College yesterday to increase its voluntary payments to the city to offset tax revenue lost as a result of the school's recent $67 million purchase of a high-rise apartment complex on Commonwealth Avenue.
As part of its $1 billion expansion plan, the college wants to turn the building, located about a third of a mile from the university's Chestnut Hill campus, into a dormitory for more than 500 students. Menino announced his opposition to the plan last week and urged the college to house all its students on its main campus.
BC officials say that the main campus, which has 4,700 students on 40 acres, is too crowded for the necessary dorm space and that they need to convert the Commonwealth Avenue property to meet the housing demand for all its undergraduates.
Yesterday, Menino, through his main spokeswoman, renewed his criticism of Boston College, taking aim at the amount the university pays in place of taxes.
"He believes BC should make that up somehow," said the mayor's press secretary, Dorothy Joyce. "They don't do as much as their counterparts, and he'd like to see them do more."
Menino wants BC to pay the city the $424,000 it will lose in taxes from the Commonwealth Avenue property, as well as additional community benefits "to moderate the impact on the neighborhood," if the building is converted to a dormitory, Joyce said.
BC officials said they were willing to discuss the mayor's request as the city's review of the expansion plan moves forward.
"Boston College is happy to have discussions with the mayor on these matters and looks forward to doing so," said college spokesman Jack Dunn. Dunn said such discussions would probably take place later this summer, when the college and city negotiate a community benefits package around the proposed expansion.
Yup, asshole mayor is going to bluster before he's even talked to the school.
What, you trying to score points, mayor? With who?
The university, with a campus divided between Newton and Boston, pays Boston $261,000 annually, less than many of its Boston counterparts. Boston University pays $4.6 million and an additional $3.5 million in property taxes. Harvard pays $1.8 million a year; and Northeastern pays $141,000, city officials said.
Dunn defended BC's level of community support, saying the university provides more than $5 million worth of community service to Boston and Newton, including volunteer efforts in local schools and nonprofit agencies.
The growing friction between the university and Menino is more than political backbiting. BC's plan, which it describes as critical to its future, needs the approval of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, whose board is dominated by Menino appointees.
The mayor has also expressed frustration over the university's recent efforts to have alumni contact city officials and state representatives to register their support for the plan. Menino said the lobbying is premature because the expansion plan was only recently filed for official city review.
What a piece of work this guy is!!
I'm glad I don't live in Boston (sometime podunksville is better).
As nonprofits, colleges are exempt from taxes on most of their property, often vast amounts of valuable land, but most agree to pay their host communities for some of the lost revenue and the cost of municipal services.
The only ones who AREN'T, apparently, are the AVERAGE CITIZENS!!!!
In Boston, colleges typically provide additional community benefit packages in negotiations over their expansion plans. Earlier this year, for example, Harvard University agreed to pay $24 million in community benefits to offset the impact of a $1 billion science center in North Allston.
College officials say the addition of housing for almost 1,300 students, including new dormitories on its Brighton campus, will dramatically reduce neighborhood complaints over disruptive students.
Tim Burke, a member of a task force reviewing BC's plan, said he supported the mayor's push.
"There's too much tax-free land in the city already," he said. "It's not fair to the neighbors. We're picking up the cost."--MORE--"
But when they pile the $$$$ of to big business or subsidize corporations, THAT'S O.K.!
Meanwhile, the state will be getting up your ass even more:
"Patrick signs law tightening abuse rules
Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill yesterday that requires the state to more thoroughly investigate potential child abuse cases. The bill was approved by legislators last week, after several recent high-profile cases of child abuse. Among the provisions, the bill says that three unsubstantiated reports of abuse within a three-month period will trigger an automatic DSS board investigation. Three such reports spread over a year will also trigger a board review."
Yup, it's All For the Kids!
Except for the eats:
Three more cases of salmonella reported
State public health officials said that three more cases of salmonella have been reported in Massachusetts, bringing to 24 the number of cases that have been linked with a nationwide outbreak associated with tomatoes. Five of the people who contracted the illness had to be hospitalized. They became ill from late May through mid-June, officials said. While the investigation has linked tomatoes to the outbreak, investigators have been looking at foods commonly eaten with raw tomatoes, the Department of Public Health said in a statement. Investigators are reportedly looking at jalapeno peppers, cilantro, and serrano peppers as possible sources. Almost 1,000 cases have been tallied nationwide."
And talk about WASTING time and money:
"House to consider bill to eliminate Electoral College" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | July 9, 2008
House lawmakers will consider legislation today that could someday rid the state of the Electoral College system and put presidential elections more directly in the hands of voters.
The plan would not affect the 2008 election and would not be put into place until 2012, at the earliest.
Don't they have BETTER THINGS they could be doing?
The House is planning to vote today, and the Senate will likely follow next week. Both House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray support the idea, which makes its approval by the Legislature possible. Governor Deval Patrick has given it a tentative thumbs up, pending further study.
PFFFFT!
So HOW MUCH is that going to cost us, guv?!
Gee-zus!!!!!
"It takes out the quirkiness and nuances that are so unfamiliar to many of the voters in this country," DiMasi said. "The votes that people cast, they're used to having the majority of people who vote for one candidate win . . . it's a fairer way of predicting who the winner would be, and people would be more inclined to vote."
Of "PREDICTING?"
I thought it was a REAL VOTE, no?!?
Yeah, maybe I will sit out this next FRAUD of an "election!"
Now, why, dear readers, are the critics brought up so late in the piece?
Critics say the change could result in quirky situations in which a state like Massachusetts, which has voted overwhelmingly Democratic, would pledge its votes to a Republican president.
"If this was in place in 2004, despite John Kerry getting nearly 70 percent of the vote, ours would have voted for George Bush despite the sense that Massachusetts voters would have had," said Representative William M. Straus, a Mattapoisett Democrat and chief critic of the legislation.
Ha-ha-ha!
Stoo-pid DemocraPs (except for this guy)!!!!
Straus also contends that if the Electoral College system should be dismantled for a popular vote, then the US Constitution should be amended.
EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!
"If you want to amend the constitution, do it. Get the two-thirds support and send it to the states," Straus said.
Patrick also supports the idea but said he wanted time to study the proposal before fully endorsing it. "There's a lot of reason to concern ourselves about continuing the Electoral College system in the society we have right now," Patrick said.
WTF does THAT MEAN?!
We hve been doing it this way for hundreds of myears, and now, all of a sudden, the CONSTITUTION has to be IGNORED?
I'm sorry I voted for the guy now.
And HOW MUCH that study gonna cost me?
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is looking for state protection to avoid being forced to pay back as much as $200 million to investors.
Governor Deval Patrick's administration has signaled its support of the plan, which it says would cost the state no money but would expose the state to some measure of additional risk.
Please see: Ron Paul Revolution Excerpts: Economic Freedom
In essence, the plan proposed by the Patrick administration and the authority would have the state step in and guarantee part of the authority's debt, like a cosigner on a loan.
Jay Gonzalez, undersecretary for administration and finance, said the debt-related problems the authority faces originated years ago, rooted in a series of complex financial deals it made in 2001 and 2002 to raise cash to meet Big Dig costs.
We are never going to stop paying for that piece of crap, are we?
The Turnpike Authority is an independent agency, with the ability to borrow money on public markets by pledging revenues collected in tolls. In 1996, the Legislature gave the authority the responsibility for managing construction of the $15 billion Big Dig and, later, for operating it.
As cost overruns mounted, the authority accumulated $1.8 billion in debt for the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. In 2001 and 2002, the authority, short on cash, made deals with the investment firms UBS and
The so-called swaption deals allowed the investment banks to hedge against disadvantageous changes in interest rates. Already, the banks have exercised options that cost the authority about $10 million a year in increased payments. And another option available to the banks in January could double the additional cost.
Oh my God; we are PAYING OFF BANKS!!!
Un-FUCKING-believable!!!!!!
One way out of the deals for the authority is to refinance, but because its credit rating is so poor, the authority cannot find willing purchasers of its bonds."
--MORE--"
Also see: Ron Paul Revolution Excerpts: Money
