Democratic lawmakers who for many years have managed Beacon Hill are actually making an attempt to pin the blame for the MBTA’s security disaster immediately on the feathered butt of lame duck Gov. Charlie Baker.
That a lot was clear from the primary of a collection of politically motivated public hearings specializing in a rash of crashes, runaway trains, derailments, explosions, and lethal door malfunctions which have plagued the T the previous few years.
It’s a predictable technique in a yr when the whole Legislature is on the poll, however it’s not going to do something to repair the T.
Baker does deserve an excellent chunk of blame for the issues on the T, which he wrestled management of early in his first time period and promised to make safer and extra environment friendly.
Grandstanding legislators on Monday outlined the governor’s makes an attempt to reduce the issues — calling an explosion a “battery failure” — and pressuring the T to delay reporting severe malfunctions to the general public.
“I don’t view it as political interference,” General Manager Steve Poftak informed legislators on Monday.
But the T has been dysfunctional and nontransparent for many years, lengthy earlier than Baker arrived within the Corner Office.
In some years Democrats have managed not simply the Legislature however the governor’s workplace as properly, and but now they handle to absolve themselves of any blame.
It’s solely now, in an election yr, that lawmakers have determined to behave — and by act I imply calling for ineffective hearings from which nothing will come.
It’s so unhealthy that even federal lawmakers like Elizabeth Warren and Stephen Lynch have leapt into the fray — giving them one thing to do apart from blame Donald Trump for every part.
But even state lawmakers have refused to do the apparent — which is name for a complete housecleaning and the substitute of the T’s prime managers.
“Well the calendar is going to provide a new governor will be sworn in in January,” was all state Rep. William Straus, co-chair of the Transportation Committee, may muster.
Sure, Maura Healey will resolve every part, proper?
How Poftak has been allowed to maintain his job is mystifying.
The system wants a brand new reform-minded supervisor and an entire home cleansing.
“It’s a big battleship to turn around. We’re not going to turn it around in a month, in a day, a month, a year,” Poftak informed lawmakers on Monday. “The system is safe, we can and will do better.”
Yet Poftak now says the T wants one other $300 million to make the T secure, which incorporates handing out big bonuses to draw extra dispatchers.
Does anybody actually consider giving them one other $300 million goes to repair all the issues?
Yet it’s not Poftak or Baker or any of the lawmakers concerned in these charade public hearings who will probably be paying the last word worth.
It’s the passengers who depend on the MBTA to get to work on time each day.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”