STATE HOUSE, BOSTON — The Massachusetts Legislature is poised to pass a $1.39 billion transportation bond bill containing many earmarks despite making a pledge to swear off them several years ago.
The bill would spend $5.1 million on roadway repairs on Taylor Avenue in Senate President Therese Murray’s hometown of Plymouth. It would devote $2 million for a parking garage ... also in Plymouth. It would spend $1.5 million for a water main replacement in Barre, the hometown of Senate Ways and Means Chairman Steven Brewer. And it would provide $2 million for new sidewalks in Gloucester, where Senate Republican leader Bruce Tarr lives.
Gov. Deval Patrick suggested he’d be willing to sign an earmarked transportation bond bill: “If the things I need are in there, I’ll accept a certain level of earmarking.”
Ordinarily, the bond bill money would be given to the highway department or the subway and rail division, and they would decide how the funds would best be spent. Instead, with earmarks, lawmakers funnel state resources to their own districts.
But just because the earmark is in the bond bill doesn’t necessarily mean the project will be funded. There has to be enough money available as the year goes on to fund the project — and many times that’s not the case.
