Analyst warns of cash shortfall for Mass. roads

The Boston Globe reports:

The Massachusetts transportation system is in deep distress, with nearly every agency facing operating deficits and unable to properly maintain or expand roads, bridges, or transit systems, a problem that cannot be solved without new revenues, a prominent budget analyst warned city and state officials yesterday.

Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said he was startled by how bleak the outlook is for the state's transportation budget.

``We are seriously disinvesting in our transportation infrastructure at really an alarming rate," Widmer told a forum sponsored by the taxpayers' foundation and A Better City, a business group.

As the state has focused on the Big Dig, local highways and bridges have suffered. A recent report said that on the Massachusetts Turnpike, 12 of the 489 bridges are rated as structurally deficient. Though not dangerous to motorists now, roads and bridges could eventually become hazardous if not maintained, state transportation officials said.

The more immediate concern, Widmer and other speakers at the forum warned, is that without transportation improvements, fewer businesses will come to Massachusetts and commuters will spend more time stuck in traffic.

Since the government has failed in Massachusetts,maybe it's time to privatize the roads.That way politicians will not be making vital decisions.