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Is Romney Being Cheap?
Posted by Raven on July 14th, 2005
This doesn’t sound good. Although I’m not clear about what tunnels the MTA is speaking about-there are so many. Are they talking about the vehicle tunnels or the underground wiring tunnels?
Despite overseeing some of Boston’s largest potential terror targets, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority has repeatedly been shut out of a multimillion-dollar pool of homeland security money distributed by the Romney administration, a Herald review found.
During the past two years of orange alerts and foreign attacks, the Turnpike Authority has received less than $350,000 in anti-terrorism funding – a paltry sum to secure a network of tunnels running beneath the heart of the city, officials said.
“We are very disappointed that our efforts to secure funds and better protect the public have been rejected,” Mass Pike spokeswoman Mariellen Burns said, noting the agency is responsible for securing such potential targets as the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, the Prudential and Interstate 93 tunnels.
The Turnpike Authority – which has battled with Gov. Mitt Romney over Big Dig woes – recently fired off a letter complaining about the lack of funding to Romney’s Executive Office of Public Safety.
A spokeswoman for that office said yesterday a meeting has been scheduled to discuss the concerns and the Turnpike’s application for the next round of funding.
“We only have so much money to go around,” public safety spokeswoman Katie Ford said. “We don’t play politics with homeland security money in this office.”
Romney recently went to court in an unsuccessful effort to remove Pike boss Matthew Amorello.
The $8 million pool of federal dollars distributed to state agencies each year by Romney has gone to the Registry of Motor Vehicles, state police and the Executive Office of Transportation.
Other agencies including the MBTA and Massport have received grants from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, but the Turnpike Authority is blocked from that by federal regulations.
Despite requests to Romney for everything from digital camera equipment to a mobile unit to inspect vehicles, the Turnpike has received only about $350,000 to pay overtime and buy protective vests for the agency’s state police wing.
