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Deval Patrick on TechnologyDemocrat |
Imagine if you could depend on a bus or subway that came on time, was safe and comfortable and ran until a student at UMass Boston or a worker in a downtown tower finished up at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. Imagine if a young innovator in the Seaport District could get a fast train to an affordable apartment in New Bedford at the end of the day or the family in New Bedford had access to the work and social opportunities in Boston. Imagine if the Green Line ran to Medford and the commuter rail ran to Springfield and the Housatonic line was reopened between Pittsfield & NYC. Imagine if you could drive at highway speeds the whole length of the Pike and let technology collect your tolls. Imagine that the interchanges on 128 in Canton and Woburn were smoothed out and you didn't have to add 45 minutes to your commute at rush hour just to get through the bottlenecks.
Second, in transportation in particular, new funding must be dedicated. We need disciplined, sustained investments in specific service improvements and expansion projects over time, without the risk that funds will be diverted to the next good idea. And we need to be able to show the people of Massachusetts that their money is targeting specific results.
When I came to office, we set out on a different course: investing in ourselves and our future. And today Massachusetts leads the nation in economic competitiveness, student achievement, health care coverage, life sciences and biotech, energy efficiency and veterans' services. Today, with the help of the Obama administration, we are rebuilding our roads and bridges and expanding broadband access. Today we're out of the deficit hole Mr. Romney left, and we've achieved the highest bond rating in our history. Today--with labor at the table--we've made the reforms in our pension and benefits systems, our schools, our transportation system and more that Mr. Romney only talked about.
At the federal level, we are working hard to help shape a federal stimulus package to bridge us to a better economy. If and when that package is passed, we will be ready to get projects underway and put people to work.
That means jobs extending broadband services; jobs installing solar panels, wind turbines, and weather stripping; jobs rebuilding roads, rails and bridges; jobs modernizing our health care records management system and building schools.
Of course, our job in state government demands more than waiting for a federal lifeline. We have launched one billion dollars of capital projects to start over the first 6 months of this year, creating new jobs and making it more attractive for companies and families to put down stakes in Massachusetts.
