Posted on 02/01/2011 8:15:50 AM PST by Atomic Vomit
According to OPEGA, MTA gave out a grand total of $454,238 in “sponsorships” and “donations” to many groups that have nothing to do with the mission of the MTA. Some other groups on the receiving end of this toll-payer funded spending spree:
$3,255 to GrowSmart Maine, a lobbying group who’s biggest accomplishment is helping to secure $67 million in bonds for Lands for Maine’s Future and “community development.” $27,000 to the Maine Preservation Foundation that, among other things, seeks to “provide grants to educators to introduce preservation in the schools.” (It just so happens that the Executive Director of MTA, Paul Violette, is an Advisory Trustee to the Maine Preservation Foundation) $6,100 to Women Unlimited $2,500 for Maine Recycle Week/Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments $6,650 to the Maine International Trade Center $6,000 to Lewiston/Auburn Economic Growth Council $3,375 to Friends of Scarborough Marsh And the list goes on and on. YMCAs, Chambers of Commerce, Firefighters and more were handed your toll dollars.
Maybe the most egregious activity that MTA took part in was handing out more than $157,000 worth of gift cards to various organizations. What’s worse, the OPEGA report says:
“[T]here have been no records kept of the specific donations made or received by any particular organization.”
Wait, whaaatttt?? No record?
So, the MTA collected $157,000 of your toll money, used it to buy gift cards, and handed them out to its favored organizations. MTA also, intentionally it would seem, neglected to keep track of these donations in any way. But don’t worry, MTA executive director Paul Violette reports that he distributed these himself, and no other MTA employees were involved. By the way, Paul made $166,986 in 2009.
(Excerpt) Read more at mainefreedomforum.com ...
A toll authority that spends even a single penny of tolls on something not related to the asset being tolled (and in this day and age, that should include human cashiers), should be disbanded.
:)
Good grief, the MTA is flush. 100K for pictures of dogs at a rest stop? You can’t even pee at a NJ turnpike rest stop any more; they’re all closed to save money.
MTA also, intentionally it would seem, neglected to keep track of these donations in any way. But don’t worry, MTA executive director Paul Violette reports that he distributed these himself, and no other MTA employees were involved. By the way, Paul made $166,986 in 2009.
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Then how does anyone know there were any donations at all and that Violette didn’t pocket that money?
You may get your wish. Clean up is happening one organization at a time Maine Energy Alliance closed
You may get your wish. Clean up is happening one organization at a time Maine Energy Alliance closed
The business of the Left is government. Like any business it has to be funded and its cadres must be kept intact during those inevitable times when the voting public wakes up for a short while. Baldacci and his recruiters apparently trolled every gay bar in the country to bring in bureaucrats to run your life by staffing every government entity and commission they could, and even inventing quite a few of the Green variety. They think they are here to stay, on salaries 4 times higher than anyone else in the state!
So, the Left staffs up every government bureaucracy and commission. Republicans are driven from these fields and are soon allowed almost no place at the trough except as can be arranged with RINOs.
The MTA is a wonderful place to stash your friends in high-pay spots during Democrat times, and allows them to stay in protected hide-outs when the Republicans briefly take over. And the money is very helpful, too. The big money of course is in "side deals."
Now when Republicans finally do take over, their programs are doomed to failure because the people who are tasked with implementing them are guess what .... all Democrats, dummie.
Republicans have never learned to "CLEAN HOUSE" when they move in. And that goes in Augusta and DC.
Throw the goddam bums out! Start over. Close down departments. Hire the people, when you need people, that supported you ... don't leave a Democrat Party Fifth Column in place to screw your plan up.
Excellent! Something(or someone) put the fear into Baldacci’s former counsel. Wonder what it was???
Reading the link you posted made me furious. So much taxpayer money wasted on these councils, authorities, etc. simply a bait and switch/fool the eye sort of thing to hide someone siphoning off money.
Imagine - over 355,00.00 to “assist” Maine homeowners to “obtain” energy retrofits. I have a phonebook that will “assist” me to do that for free. When I “obtain” a contractor, it’s by word of mouth, also free. Everyone I know in Maine does it the same way.
Mrs. AV
“Read the entire article if you really want to get furious about where your tolls are going. Hint: They aren’t fixing the roads with ‘em. I hope the new governor will do something about this. Something involving prison time. “
We do the same here in Houston. Notice that you don’t read of diversions from the bus system, or from the train system. Only from toll roads. Why? Because HIGHWAYS ARE CHEAP, compared to the tolls that they can generate. Public transit needs every penny they can collect at the fare box.
Conservatives need to understand that before they start selling off highways to private operators (for unlimited tolling), like Mitch Daniels did in Indiana.
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