An I-Team investigation found that millions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted not on excess salaries or over-budget projects, but on empty parking spaces.
Chief Correspondent Joe Shortsleeve found that the state spends almost $3 million on leasing spaces that are not only a questionable perk but actually often empty.
Nice, huh? In these days of tightening belts, budget cuts, layoffs, etc. the state of Massachusetts -which just raised its sales tax from 5% to 6.5% claiming it needed more funds - is dropping millions of taxpayer dollars on parking spots that go unused.
Freakin' GREAT.
And, as always, private industry cannot hold a candle to government in the "wasting money like there's no tomorrow" department:
For more than a decade, the state highway department has paid more than $30 million to lease 950 spaces. The I-Team's undercover camera visited the garage on three recent occasions during the work week. And every time the garage was nearly empty.
$3 mil a year for one garage for ten years that sits empty. Why, you ask?
To cut down on pollution, in 1995 Massachusetts signed an iron-clad 15-year deal leasing four floors. The idea: encourage commuters to use the "T" by offering affordable parking rates.
Obviously the rates aren't "affordable" if the garage is sitting nearly empty. But what else would you expect from a state found to be the most liberal in America? Massachusetts is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to "cut down on pollution". I'd wager the people being laid off from their jobs will cut down on pollution as well, as they no longer have that pesky drive to work in which to burn fossil fuels. Maybe that can be MA's new slogan?
MA: Lessening our carbon footprint one layoff at a time.
That is all.
2 comments:
In Chicago, the owner of the garage would be the idiot nephew of the DOT guy making the deal.
Oh, that is almost certainly the case here as well...
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