Tuesday, January 6, 2009

A Good Spin

I've got to hand it to him, Dan Onorato took the drink tax loss in stride. He's not appealing the court case (on the taxpayer's dime) and he's making some sense in his smarmy way.

The county budgeted $6.3 million for Port Authority projects this year, money from the county's general bond sales. Onorato wants to add $3 million to that because the authority successfully negotiated a contract with its unions, he has said.

I'm perfectly fine with Dan spending the money on Port Authority capital projects instead of Port Authority operating expenses (if just because it includes my pet project.) I'm even okay with Dan withholding an extra $3 million this year because Port Authority did only request $9 million for capital projects, and I don't exactly trust Port Authority to make the best decisions as to what to do with the money either.

Of course, neither does the state. A year ago, the auditor general said we "can no longer wait" on reforming Port Authority's board of directors. Yet nothing has happened. Might as well put the money where something is actually being done with it, inefficiently though it is.


2 comments:

Bram Reichbaum said...

Dan = smarmy? Ouch, he may not be able to recover from that tag.

Schultz said...

While waiting for the T this morning I was commenting on how outdated fare booth attendants are. The union is concerned about automation as it will cost them jobs, but then again if the cost savings could be applied to restoring or expanding service then in the long run it will be a net job creator.