The Big Dig wrecking ball

Boston Globe: "Big Dig debt challenges Massport"

In the mid-1990s, state lawmakers were desperately searching for a way to pay the state's share of escalating Big Dig costs. To borrow the billions they would
need, they found a financially stable government agency with a consistent source of income: the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

More than a decade later, the authority is unable to afford needed maintenance, has a credit rating just above junk bond status, and is in such a shambles that Governor Deval Patrick is drafting a plan to split it into parts and wipe it from the face of state government.

Under Patrick's plan, the details of which began to surface this week, most of the authority's responsibilities, including the Big Dig, would be shifted to the Massachusetts Port Authority, the entity that runs Logan International Airport, a financially stable government agency with a consistent source of income.

Will history repeat itself?

To ask is to answer. From the moment the first shovel hit the ground, Boston's Big Dig has been a black hole for state and federal funds. Shifting the burden from the MTA (sorry Charlie!) to the MPA is just part of the shell game. Can we get another government bailout?