Massachusetts News
By Paul Joseph Walkowski

February 9--Reacting angrily to a listener on the "Blute and Moes" talk show on WRKO radio earlier this week, Senate President Tom Birmingham, came nearly unglued when the caller brought up a Beacon Hill Institute study on the Big Dig that was made available to elected officials seven years ago.

"The Beacon Hill Institute did a study years ago," the caller began, "that warned both you and Governor Cellucci of this overrun almost to the dollar . . ."

"Yeah, yeah, and if you gave a million monkies a million typewriters and a million years, you’d probably get King Lear," Birmingham interrupted as the caller began to speak.

"Would you let me finish?" the caller asked.

"Is this Dave Tuerck?" Birmingham interrupted, defensively.

"Would you let me finish?"

"Is this Dave Tuerck?" Birmingham interrupted again.

"If you’d let me. . ."

"Is this Dave Tuerck?" Birmingham demanded again, his voice noticeably agitated. 

When the caller responded that he was not David Tuerck, but rather a candidate for elected office, Andy Moes, one of the hosts, cut the caller short saying that if the station gave him time to talk, they’d have to give the same time to other candidates. 

When a tape of the interview was played to Dr. Tuerck, Executive Director of BHI, he appeared stunned. "Monkeys?" he said. "You’ll have to give me a moment with that one."

The caller was responding to a statement from the Senate President that, "Everything we heard about the project . . . is that this was going to be a project that was on budget and on time."

Moes, who himself was a little surprised stated, "It is stunning to me, sir, that a shortfall of this magnitude could have gone unnoticed or unreported to the legislative leadership."

"We have been told repeatedly, unequivocally and emphatically," Birmingham said, calmer after the caller was dismissed, "that the project was going to be done on time and on budget, and out of nowhere comes a $1.4 billion dollar increase."

The answer to the Senate President, Tuerck said, "is that the legislature has a responsibility and the resources to form its own judgment about the likely costs of a project of this magnitude and duration. If, in fact, the legislature believes the wrong information, it should be held accountable for not finding the correct information." Tuerck says this information was readily available to the state legislature and everyone else in 1993 when BHI studied the cost estimates. (See Mass News, February 8, 2000)

"I think it is apparent that the Senate President doesn’t like to hear what we have to say," Tuerck said. "The Senate President is in a position far better than BHI, and has far more resources to know what is gong on with this project. He should explain to the voters who elected him why he didn’t pay attention to a study that, if taken seriously at the time, would have averted the financial crisis in which we now find ourselves." 

Thursday of this week, the Transportation Committee is expected to hold hearings on the overruns. 
 

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