First, never mind the fact that Tim Murray had to resign as Lieutenant Governor and pay a steep fine because he broke the law and took dirty campaign cash from a now convicted felon. Second, ignore the story of him crashing a taxpayer owned car while "surveying storm damage" in the pitch dark while traveling at 118 mph. Wink, wink... Next, don't look at the financial mess the former Lieutenant Governor and his pal Governor Deval Patrick left for the adults to clean up. Finally, pay no attention to the incompetence and lack of accountability that was the Patrick/Murray administration. These are the leaders who gave us Beverly Scott, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority chief who presided over a complete collapse of public transportation in the winter of 2015. Like Murray, Scott resigned in disgrace. Her legacy of incompetence followed her and a nomination to serve in President Obama's administration was ultimately withdrawn. Unlike Scott, Murray's political allies stood by him and provided a soft landing for the corrupt politician in a do-nothing job.
I mentioned earlier that Murray and Deval left behind a mess for incoming Governor Charlie Baker and his Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito. One of the biggest messes was the MBTA. We don't have enough time for me to discuss all the incompetence, patronage, waste, and corruption that's been going on within that organization since its inception in 1964. Not to mention the MBTA's inability to consistently provide safe and reliable public transportation at a reasonable cost.
Tim Murray has boasted that he and Deval Patrick made real reforms to the MBTA's out of control pension system. That's not a complete falsehood, but the devil is in the details. During their administration, the notorious “23 and out” pension policy was ended. It allowed T employees to retire after just 23 years of service with a full pension and health benefits. That would have been a great accomplishment except they replaced it with a slightly less ridiculous scheme that grants a full pension as early as age 55 after just 25 years of service. The only real impact of that reform is it's now more difficult for a T employee to retire in their early forties. Big deal.
Fast forward to Tim Murray's new job as CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce (Corruption). Thanks to Congressman Jim McGovern, (D) Havana, and what's left of Worcester's business community, Murray is paid $250K a year and has the use of a free car. Anyone else see the irony in giving big bucks to a corrupt politician and a car to someone who destroyed their last one under mysterious circumstances?
This week, the MBTA proposed the elimination of weekend commuter rail service as one of the cuts to help stem a projected $42 million budget deficit. The move could save $10 million dollars. Remember the mess I said Murray and Patrick left for the adults to clean up? Well, Tim Murray reacted to this news like a petulant child being disciplined. He told The Telegram he's "...hoping this is an early April Fool's joke." No Timmy, it's called making tough decisions, something adults do. He went on to claim this will hurt his efforts to attract businesses to the area. Again, acting just like a child by placing blame elsewhere. Not only did he help to create the financial mess, now he's using a solution as an excuse for his perpetual failure to attract businesses to Worcester. This is all further proof that the man who is supposed to be an advocate for business does not know the first thing about conducting business.
Here's the bottom line. The MBTA, I mean the taxpayers, must pay a subsidy of $33 per weekend trip on the Framingham/Worcester line. Did you hear that? The cost of the ticket does not cover the total cost of the trip. That's not a winning business model. It would be cheaper for the MBTA to give every passenger a free ticket for a Peter Pan bus ride to Boston. In that scenario, the MBTA would only lose $13 to $17 on each rider, the average cost of a ticket. That's still a loss, but it's a savings of $16 to $20 over the scenario favored by the man who represents "business" in Worcester.