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State
prodded on transit pact By Anthony Flint From The Boston Globe, 12/15/2003 The head of the state Department of Environmental Protection has warned that the Romney administration is violating a judge's order from 2000 mandating improvements to the state's transit system to coincide with completion of the Big Dig.Robert Golledge, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, wrote in a Dec. 8 letter to state transportation secretary Daniel A. Grabauskas and Michael Mulhern, the general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, that "compliance with the [agreement] is particularly important as the Central Artery/Tunnel project nears completion." The legally binding administrative consent order derives from a 1990 pact signed by then-state transportation secretary Frederick Salvucci and Douglas Foy, then president of the Conservation Law Foundation. The pact was essentially a promise by the state that numerous transit improvements -- the extension of the Green Line to West Medford, a Red-Blue line connector in Boston, the restoration of the Arborway line -- would move ahead, providing an alternative to driving on the Big Dig's new roadway system. "The level of planning work at this stage strongly suggests a lack of commitment to prioritize these projects for funding," Golledge says in the letter. Environmental officials are in charge of enforcing the consent order because it is tied to air-pollution reduction targets, and those officials could technically levy a fine against the state for violating the agreement. Foy, who is in charge of transportation, housing, and environmental affairs for Romney, said last week that Golledge's letter was "appropriate" and that "the underlying issue is what our transit investments are going to be." Grabauskas immediately called Golledge after receiving the letter to set up a meeting, and will "provide any information they want and work to resolve the outstanding issues," said the secretary's spokesman, Jon Carlisle. The rationale for the agreement was that along with the billions invested in the Big Dig, which is nearing completion with the opening of the southbound Interstate 93 tunnel next weekend, the state also should spend money on improving and extending the transit system. But the Romney administration has yet to lay out a plan for which projects to pursue or in what order. Romney, who met with other New England governors on federal transportation funding last week, said that his first priority was to make sure the distribution formula did not get altered so that Massachusetts receives less in funding, for either highway or transit projects. He emerged from a meeting of the Coalition of Northeastern Governors on the subject and said that "we decided that we will stand together and raise the decibel level of our voices" in arguing against any change in the formula. The six-year federal transportation spending bill is currently being reauthorized in Washington. "We cannot see essential dollars for our region get siphoned off to our south and to the west," Romney said. US Representative James McGovern, meanwhile, at a Dec. 9 breakfast of business leaders, called for renewal of an agreement that Massachusetts spend $400 million each year on roads and bridges other than the Big Dig. That pact is to expire in 2005. McGovern, Democrat of Worcester, said the Romney administration was showing "no vision" in laying out a transportation agenda. Anthony Flint can be reached at flint@globe.com © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
From www.boston.com/globe. |