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Thanks, Maine: Taxpayers there could wind up spending $7 million to subsidize MBTA bus repairs

By adamg on Thu, 01/19/2017 - 2:45pm

The Bangor Daily News reports Gov. Paul "D-Money" LePage's administration is trying to take $7 million out of a state fund so that the Maine Military Authority can finish refurbishing 32 MBTA buses under a contract for which it seriously underestimated the cost.

The authority - originally set up to get Maine a piece of some sweet Humvee repair work for the military - bid $19 million for the project, then laid off most of the workers on it when it realized how much money the work would actually cost.

Topics: 
The T
Free tagging: 
buses


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Comments

By SwirlyGrrl on Thu, 01/19/2017 - 3:09pm.

Sadly, we win here because Maine elected an irresponsible buffoon and it worked in our favor.

I feel bad for my kids and all the kids who will be picking up the tab for the actions of a similar irresponsible buffoon about to take office.

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By Waquiot on Thu, 01/19/2017 - 3:45pm.

Your kids have the tabs of, what, 30 years of American Presidents to pay off already. The guy who is office right now (and his Congress, to be fair) is leaving a pretty hefty tab behind.

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By Kinopio on Thu, 01/19/2017 - 4:12pm.

Bush's tax cuts for billionaires and Bush's wars aren't cheap. Trump is only going to make it worse by giving even more tax cuts to the 1%. That is many billions of dollars that will sit in offshore bank accounts of money hoarders instead of being invested in the American economy.

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By anon on Thu, 01/19/2017 - 4:38pm.

The president only signs the budget. Congress does the rest.

Funny how CONGRESS always finds money for wars ...

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By johnmcboston on Thu, 01/19/2017 - 3:42pm.

So they bid $19M for a job that will cost $26M.

Now, the people at the T had to have a rough estimate of how much the wok should have cost. Did the T accept a contract that looked "too good to be true" just to save a buck? (does the law require them to do so?)

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By anon on Thu, 01/19/2017 - 3:46pm.

MMA was the only bidder.

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By anon on Fri, 01/20/2017 - 12:37pm.

for which there was only one bidder?

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By anon on Thu, 01/19/2017 - 3:50pm.

You are assuming that the amount it is costing Maine is based on best practices, etc... Could be just a terribly managed project on their part and it should have cost some theoretical ideal repair agency $19m.

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By anon on Thu, 01/19/2017 - 5:35pm.

26 million dollars to only refurbish just 32 buses ? Theres gotta be more to this deal than has been reported. It just does not pass the smell test, but then again, very little about the T and Gov. Lepage does.

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By anon on Thu, 01/19/2017 - 9:36pm.

These are the dual-mode buses used on the SL1 and SL2 Silver Line Waterfront routes. They cost over $1 million each when new in 2004. It's not that surprising that the cost to overhaul them to like new condition 13 years later would be higher than that for a standard bus.

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