Mass. Republicans assail $25M for parking garage pet project in House speaker's district
Massachusetts Republicans teed off on the top Democrat in the state House on Wednesday for slipping $25 million for a parking garage in his district that critics have denounced as the ultimate 'power play.'
State House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, successfully inserted the language into a bill last month that doled out $1.3 billion in surplus cash from the state's so-called 'Millionaire's Tax.'
It gave a leg up to the city of Quincy, which is building a 500-spot parking garage for a new Beth Israel Deaconess-run medical facility, according to The Boston Globe, which was the first to report the news.
Under state law, money from the Millionaire's Tax, formally known as the 'Fair Share Amendment,' is intended to support education- and transportation-related programs.
The chamber allocated $353.5 million for education and $828 million, most of it for the MBTA, for transportation.
Critics told the Globe that the language Mariano inserted into the bill stretched the intent of the law.,
Mariano's actions "siphon money from roads and bridges," and 'back toward the political donors who have padded his campaign account, John Milligan, the executive director of the state Republican Party, said in a statement.
"The migrant shelter crisis continues to bleed money from our budget while Massachusetts is ranked the second-most expensive state for families, but State House leadership is still managing to use taxpayer dollars to take care of the friends who have long taken care of them,' Milligan said in an email.
In a statement to the Globe, Mariano defended the move, saying the money would pay for an 'essential component' of the new health care facility.
'Providing support for key transportation infrastructure projects, especially projects that are related to the health and well-being of our residents, is one of the most fundamental ways that state government can better the lives of the people that it serves,' Mariano said, according to the newspaper.
Quincy has gone all-in on the project, investing $157 million to build a pair of parking garages in Quincy Center, according to the local Patriot-Ledger newspaper.
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