All to pay for the The Big Pit!!!
"Break in tolls on Pike may go; Budget proposal avoids higher fee; Cuts Fast Lane, other discounts" by Ryan Kost and David Abel, Globe Staff | August 22, 2008
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority unveiled a plan yesterday that would eliminate discounts for Fast Lane users and residents of some Boston neighborhoods. By scrapping the discount for more than 1 million people, the authority would be able to avoid another across-the-board toll increase.
And we will get the TOLL INCREASE anyway!!! That's how this state operates!!!!
Both discount programs were approved as a way to appease those who felt unduly burdened by the $15 billion Big Dig. The discount for residents of East Boston, the North End, and South Boston took effect in 1995 to help compensate for the project's construction and the disarray that came with it.
About 1 million drivers benefit from the Fast Lane discount, which the Turnpike Authority board approved in 2002, to offset the impact of recent toll increases and to placate commuters and legislators from the western suburbs who complained they were paying a disproportionate amount of the Big Dig's cost.
Yesterday, LeBovidge cast the Fast Lane discount in a different light, saying that it "was initially put in as an incentive" to encourage drivers to join the program and buy transponders, an incentive, he said, that is no longer necessary. "I think people get it."
Yeah, I think they do, too. Pretty hard to not notice an ass-raping!!!!
The discount, he said, was always supposed to be contingent on whether the agency could afford it. When it became law, he said, the Legislature issued an unfunded mandate that the authority can no longer afford.
No, but they can afford kickbacks to banks, etc, and guys grabbing at the till on their way out the door!
The Turnpike Authority is facing a $70 million deficit this budget year and a $100 million deficit in next year's spending plan. Recent restructuring saved $15 million, LeBovidge said. But that is not enough. According to his plan, eliminating the discount program would allow the authority to raise more than $18 million. The budget would also use $36 million of the $71 million reserves.
WTF? $70 million in debt with $71 million in "reserves?"
State government is just one long looting operation, isn't it?
And as these pukes BORROW and BORROW MORE and MORE, who makes out?
BANKS!!!!
That YOUR $$$$ that is going for INTEREST PAYMENTS, taxpayers!!
How's that anal cavity feeling? Pretty wide and gaping at this point, 'eh?
What's that ball doing in your mouth?
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