Well, Charlie Baker’s task force on bringing the MBTA better trolley karma has finally issued its report, and today’s local dailies – wait for it – give it very different play.
The Boston Globe sort of missed the bus in its Page One coverage.
Maybe because the Boston Herald did its own review of MBTA employee absences a week ago, the Little Tabloid That Could featured this on Page One instead:
T left $2.2b on the table
Funds earmarked for repairs were never spent
The MBTA, which has repeatedly cried for more funding, has failed to spend more than $2.2 billion earmarked over the last five years to fix its dated, problem-plagued system, according to the expert panel Gov. Charlie Baker created to examine the
embattled agency.
The stunning pile of unused cash accounts for roughly half of the $4.5 billion the T has set aside since fiscal 2010 for its so-called capital budget. The unspent funding has also helped drive the growing backlog of much-needed maintenance needs, the panel found. State officials had earlier pegged that stockpile of “state-of-good repair” projects at $6.7 billion, but that figure is now seen as “the floor and not the ceiling,” according to one panel member.
Very interesting.
Apparently the folks on Morrissey Blvd. felt the same, because late this morning the sleepy local broadsheet played some website catch-up.
In the better-late-than-never Globe piece, there was no acknowledgement of the Herald’s scoop. Same old story, eh?
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 