A government official confronted and forced to spin on the fly. A shadowy source, speaking through a voice-changer. Prat Thakker of New England Cable News has a terrific story on the Massachusetts Turnpike’s decision to short-staff the toll booths on Easter Sunday. Alan LeBovidge’s reaction: Hummina hummina hummina. Great stuff.
Tag: Mass Pike
Let the Pike go bankrupt
Massachusetts Turnpike executive director Alan LeBovidge doesn’t understand many things. Here’s one of those many things: We don’t care if the Pike goes bankrupt.
When he says, “I can’t provide Rolls Royce service on a Chevette income,” we have no idea what he’s talking about. And we know he has no idea, either. It’s a road. Letting people drive on the damn thing isn’t giving them “Rolls Royce service.”
When he says, “Everyone wants premium services but they don’t want to pay for it,” we scratch our heads. What “premium services”? Blacktop?
LeBovidge’s salary is $160,000 a year. That’s enough to light the Zakim Bridge for 32 months. If his position were eliminated by, say, noon today, would anyone care?
Look, I know it’s more complicated than that, and I know the gas tax ought to be raised by quite a bit. But LeBovidge’s arrogant, clueless performance is enough to turn even a liberal weenie like me into an angry populist. Enough.