How the Pike Authority Spends Your Money

The MetroWest Daily News shed some light on the Turnpike Authority Board yesterday. The following line says it all:

Turnpike Authority Board members were surprised to discover yesterday the authority is paying $100,000 a year for two advisory boards.

Even though the Turnpike Authority Board claims no knowledge of these advisory boards, they are required by the state Legislature. Newton's mayor is chair of one of the boards and says that the board is an "intermediary between neighborhood groups and the Turnpike Authority" and says it's "hard to believe" that no one knows what the board does.

The problem isn't just that the advisory board costs a lot of money and will keep on costing a lot of money since they're required. But it's also that the board members don’t appear to know what is going on around them. Surely they ought to know what the boards do and whether or not they're worth the money. The MetroWest Daily News inserted a few snarky quotation marks in its headline for the piece: "Pike Board 'Discovers' 2 Advisory Groups and $100K Expense."

But, instead of trying to cut the Gordian Knot that is the goings-on of the board, the plan is just to raise toll money. Again. WBZ is already bracing its viewers for more turnpike hikes--even though we just had a turnpike hike--and cites the Daily News piece. There's $49 million dollars of work to be done and only $4 million in the pike budget to do it. You'd think they would have noticed before the most recent hike so they could just get all the hiking over with in one shot.

WBZ and the Daily News report that the shortfall will cause a delay or cut of a "battery replacement project for the tunnel ventilations system in the Big Dig tunnels," Sumner Tunnel ceiling repairs, and a sound barrier in Newton.

Image of Mass Pike by sissnitz from photos tagged "Bostonist" on Flickr.