Warns of Cadillac-Style Bureaucracy
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance made the following statement in advance of Governor Charlie Baker testifying at the Statehouse on his proposed $18,000,000,000.00 bond bill for transportation.
“While we can all be very sympathetic toward our state’s transportation and infrastructure needs, without a focus on how we spend the money much of it will go toward a Cadillac-style bureaucracy rather than fixing our roads, bridges, and tunnels,” stated Paul Diego Craney, spokesperson for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.
The Reason Foundation’s 24th annual highway report placed Massachusetts at #46. Massachusetts declined from #44 in 2018 to #46 this year. The worst grades for Massachusetts occurred in the “cost per mile” and “administrative disbursements per mile” categories. By both metrics, Massachusetts ranked third to last at #48. The cost per mile is estimated at $216,066 per mile. When comparing these costs with neighboring NH ($64,176), and ME ($41,847), some perspective is given. The simple administrative costs per mile tell an even more extreme story. MA spends $23,950 on administrative costs per mile while NH spends $5,260 and ME, only $1,142, meaning MA spends 20 times more than ME on desk jobs instead of filling actual potholes. Massachusetts #46, ended up behind Maine #4, Vermont #19, New Hampshire #24, Connecticut #44 and only slightly ahead of Rhode Island #48.
“It’s easy for politicians to want to spend more taxpayer money, the hard work is looking at how to spend it responsibly. Even though the big dig was decades ago, taxpayers are still paying for it as we are one of the highest indebted states in the country,” stated Craney.
“Massachusetts cannot have another big dig. We’re still paying for the first one,” concluded Craney.