Hey, there! Log in / Register
In contract snit, Maine lays off the workers who were supposed to be rehabbing MBTA buses
By adamg on Thu, 10/27/2016 - 2:39pm
Mainebiz reports the Maine Military Authority has laid off the 35 workers who were supposed to be rehabbing MBTA buses because for some reason the T doesn't want to pay more for the work just because the authority screwed up and lowballed itself on its $19-million bid.
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Contract terms?
Do they have to pay MBTA a penalty for not performing?
Don't blame them
Unlike the Maine Military Authority, the MBTA is privy to the other bids. Who's to say that the revised bid the Maine Military Authority presented doesn't exceed a competing bid the MBTA previously declined.
MMA was the only bidder
MMA was the only bidder
Mini Trump Cries The Contract Is Unfair
Shocker - Mr. Everything Can Be Blamed On People of Color has found his head up his ass again. Some of you have heard of Paul LePage, some of you may have not. Think Senator Eisen from the original Manchurian Candidate with a dash of David Duke, repeated concussions, and a fair fill of amber liquids.
LePage was elected by the Hee Haw In The Snow crowd that is Maine outside of Portland, York County, and Penobscot Bay to show up those people in Portland that have the gall to work for a living and produce the majority of the tax revenue for the state.
He claims that all the drugs, all of the drugs, in Maine come from guys named D-Money from New York and Connecticut and that they go around impregnating Maine pure hearted and chaste (read White) girls.
Now the MMA can't make any money on a deal they signed and the good old former head of Reny's (Makes Marshall's look like Saks) is saying no fair. Too bad.
I hope the MBTA sues the living bejesus out of the Maine Military Authority, a company that was founded to repair Humvees and is running out of work because thankfully we are having less of our troops blown up, and forces out His Rotundity in humiliation.
What Does The Idiot Care Anyway?
He lives in Florida most of the year, when he isn't getting each and every one of his vetoes overridden by a legislature that has had it with his buffoonery.
That's some nice rhetoric you
That's some nice rhetoric you got going there, tell us how you really feel! LePage certainly has his faults but his reforms and work as Governor, has been solid. That is a fact.
"In October 2014, Maine began requiring about 16,000 able-bodied childless adults to work, train, or volunteer on at least a part-time basis in order to continue receiving food stamps. Adults who refused to comply with the new requirements would cycle off after three months of benefits."
"After implementing these reforms, Maine quickly moved thousands of able-bodied adults out of dependency and into self-sufficiency. By January 2015, the number of able-bodied adults on food stamps had dropped to 4,500 and has continued to decline."
"Today, just 1,500 able-bodied childless adults rely on Maine’s food stamps program. Those still relying on the program also need less assistance overall, as they are working more, with average benefits dropping 13% since the work requirements went into effect. As a result of these changes, taxpayers are now saving between $30 million and $40 million each year."
Funny You Talk About Welfare
The entire MidCoast region is heroin fixed on welfare; that from the US Navy in the form of destroyer contracts.
Our tax dollars have been keeping ships being built that we don't need. We created a whole new class of ships that might flip over in a squall (The Zumwalts) when the Perry Class did things just fine. Just to keep two moderate Republicans, now one, swinging the Senate into the hands of the GOP by keeping the hammers swinging at BIW.
You can talk all you want about 0.005% of the state's budget being saved by putting 12,000 people off of welfare, which is fine, but the money invested in the Portland area, the area that is keeping the state afloat, has brought 8,000 more workers into the market all the while the overall workforce has shrank.
He can talk all he wants about getting the Allen Coffee Brandy drinkers back to work but things are only going to get worse east and north of Topsham owing to BIW losing contracts to Florida (A Swing State!) shipyards.
Maine's tax and utility rates are too high. Call center and blueberry harvesting jobs cannot be the foundation of your economy.
.
Renys
Maine Military Authority?
( with a name like that, what could possibly go wrong? )
Privatization scam
Privatization is often a scam, as this example points out. Low bid to win the contract, with the intention of jacking up the price later. I wonder why the T is playing hardball on this contract, while enabling the scam of the Keolis low bid.
As opposed to union scams
As opposed to union scams like the decades of embarrassment with the MBTA money room operation.
So is a state run agency
with no oversight or accountability as the MBTA has shown for the last... I don't know, nearly 100 years??
Good for Gov. LePage
It's not a private company. Good for Governor LePage for nixing the contract if it was bad for Maine. Just like President Reagan tried to nix the disastrous Big Dig. Also, once again, shame on the T bidding process for farming out work to obscure sources, buses refurbished by a Humvee repair shop, trains built by China in Springfield, etc. I'm all for cost savings but go with a known, reliable firm. Is there an Angie's List for government agencies?
Who Was Governor When Maine Agreed To This Contract?
( and why is a state running a vehicle repair business? )
Yes, the Big Dig has been a disaster
I too pine for the days when the Central Artery was a traffic-ridden behemoth.
Cancelling your pension
Sounds like a good idea. Pensions are expensive.
Wait, what ... contract? Well, but pensions are expensive and you are getting back a lot more than you paid in. The state needs that money for something else now.
See the problem?
Pretty sure our trains are
Pretty sure our trains are being built by the biggest train manufacturer in the world...