US – Saturday, March 20
The Senate’s Weak Health Care Bill
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid “got to 60” at 1:08 yesterday morning, clearing a key Republican hurdle and keeping the Senate’s version of a health care reform bill on track for passage before Christmas.
 
Alumni look for like-minded fans
When last month’s apocalyptic snowstorm never hit, despite empty streets outside, 50 Syracuse basketball fans still attended a local alumni association basketball watch party at the Pour House.
 
MBTA steps up for Riverside riders
Riverside Line commuters only have to endure two more days of bus service as Secretary of Transportation Jeffery Mullen estimated yesterday that the D line will be open for the Monday morning commute.  
 
Twenty years without a clue
For the past twenty years officials at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum have been working with FBI agents the U.S. Attorney’s office to bring back 13 stolen artifacts that were infamously stolen on March 18th, 1990.  
 
Two tickets to ‘Paradise Lost’
“Paradise Lost” is a Depression-era drama rife with parallels to the current economic and political climate. In the wrong hands, a predictable production of Clifford Odets’ period piece could bore an entire audience into a coma.
 
‘I’ll be your mama’
Sandra Shipley says she wants a lot of people to come see her in “Entertaining Mr. Sloane,” but there’s one person she’s a little nervous about.
 
Buchholz: Season in majors the goal
For three years, the Red Sox have implored Clay Buchholz to slow down. Still, who could blame the right-hander for wishing April 9 was here already?
 
Cooke-ing up a B’s grudge match
When the Bruins and Penguins face off tonight at the Garden, it will be more than a chance for the Bruins to hang on to the final playoff spot in the East.
 
T Time: Week of February 26, 2010
Where to go and what to see
 
Published 21:07, November the 4th, 2009
 
 Gov. Deval Patrick dispatched a crew of workers to inspect the troubled stretch on the Red Line cited in the T report, yesterday. William Mitchell, the T’s acting general manager, called the report “sobering.” Gov. Deval Patrick dispatched a crew of workers to inspect the troubled stretch on the Red Line cited in the T report, yesterday. William Mitchell, the T’s acting general manager, called the report “sobering.”
Photo: NATHAN FRIED-LIPSKI/METRO
 

T in worse shape than we thought

$1.19B

The cumulative deficit the T will face by FY14, if the new sales tax revenue goes away, based on current revenue and expenditure trends, according to the review.

Other findings
  • Maintaining the vehicle fleets at the nation’s oldest public transit system “is a Herculean and expensive task.”
  • A private sector firm faced with the same financial hurdles of the T “would likely fold or seek bankruptcy.”
  • Recommends the T slow its plans for expansion.
 

With the T’s maintenance backlog exceeding $3 billion, The MBTA report released yesterday found 51 of 57 high-priority T safety projects couldn’t be funded in the latest budget.

Gov. Deval Patrick, who had ordered the analysis, stressed the MBTA “is safe for riders,” though David D’Alessandro, the report’s primary author and a former John Hancock chairman, said the T’s infrastructure faces “considerable problems” unless more money is dedicated.

Included in the $543 million worth of critical unfunded projects is an $80 million job to replace concrete slabs beneath the Red Line damaged by water leaks. In some areas, corroded fasteners that hold the track in place are “presenting the possibility of train derailment.” Earlier in the day D’Alessandro told WTKK-FM he wouldn’t ride the Red Line between Alewife and Harvard stations.

The report recommended reprioritizing top safety projects, finding new revenue sources and having the T reexamine its debt issues and consult MassDOT before adding to debt.

Forward funding debacle
In 2000, the Legislature enacted a “Forward Funding” plan for the MBTA, which shifted 20 percent of the revenue from the sales tax to the T rather than the state simply closing its budget gap at year’s end. But the plan also forced the authority to balance its own budget and eventually become “self-sustaining.” Despite a goal of cutting operating costs by 2 percent annually in FY01, those costs instead rose 35 percent by FY06 for various reasons, such as rising price tags for health care and energy — and the T was forced to dip into reserves and restructure and defer debts to balance its budgets.   
 

Upside: No fare hikes

While a cringe-inducing report outlined the financial state of the MBTA, it did not offer specific new revenue sources to fix the problems. Neither did Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday — though he stressed T riders shouldn’t expect fare increases for at least a year or two.

A fare hike proposal had been shelved until the conclusion of this report, but yesterday Patrick conceded the state can’t ask residents to pay more for T rides until other reforms and cost-saving measures take form — the same argument he made Monday about revisiting a gas tax hike.  



 
 
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MMMpod
The March MMMpod features conversation and music from Surfer Blood and The Allman Brothers Band (There's a double-bill you're not too likely to see. However, Gregg Allman does mention Hannah Montana!). We also speak with Vampire Weekend and the Dropkick Murphys.