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House Speaker slammed for ‘stealth amendment’ funding $25 million parking garage in his hometown
House Speaker Ron Mariano’s earmark for a parking garage made up $25 million of a $28.8 million amendment setting aside money for 35 relatively small transportation projects.
The state’s “millionaires tax” generated more than a billion dollars in revenue this year, but some are gawking at a high-ranking Democrat’s $25 million earmark for a Quincy parking garage that seemed to be surreptitiously filed in a consolidated amendment.
With a huge surplus of cash from the state’s surtax on millionaires, state representatives voted overwhelmingly to budget millions to fix dilapidated roads, provide free school lunch, and support the MBTA. The $1.3 billion budget — with $353 million for education and $828 million for major transportation investments — is set to be reviewed by the state Senate this week.
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But, a Boston Globe editorial and the Massachusetts Republican party both criticized House Speaker Ron Mariano of Quincy’s relatively large earmark inside a budget amendment to partially fund a potentially 500-space parking garage in his hometown.
The Globe, which first reported on the earmark, said in the editorial that the investment was tucked into a “stealth amendment recognized only by a handful of outsiders.” In a statement, MassGOP called Mariano’s parking garage “just one of the items passed under the guise of improvements to roads and schools.”
Revenue from the Fair Share Amendment, colloquially known as the millionaire’s tax, is supposed to be set aside for public education “and for the repair and maintenance of roads, bridges and public transportation,” according to the amendment.
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“It’s not every day that the MassGOP joins with progressive activists to denounce Beacon Hill, but today is one of those rare occasions,” MassGOP Executive Director John Milligan said in a statement. “Even cheerleaders of the graduated income tax are dismayed by Ron Mariano’s ‘power play’ to siphon money from roads and bridges and back toward the political donors who have padded his campaign account.”
The parking garage will service a four-story medical building leased by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at the former Ross Garage in downtown Quincy, which is accessible by the MBTA Red Line, the Patriot Ledger reported. Construction is set to start this year with an estimated 2027 opening.
Mariano defended the earmark, which wasn’t available as one of the 145 publicly filed amendments to the supplemental budget but instead was lumped in a consolidated amendment. Mariano’s aides told the Globe that House speakers have a “longstanding” practice of not formally filing proposed legislation or bill amendments.
“Providing support for key transportation infrastructure projects, especially projects that are related to the health and wellbeing of our residents, is one of the most fundamental ways that state government can better the lives of the people that it serves,” Mariano said in a statement.
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Mariano’s earmark for the parking garage made up $25 million of a $28.8 million amendment to fund 35 relatively small transportation projects. The second largest earmark after Mariano’s was $600,000 for a traffic study and redesign of Weston Road in Wellesley. Others were for as little as $25,000 for vehicle maintenance in Greenfield or a traffic study for a town square in Paxton.
“While the House only provided a portion of the funding that this project will require, our support aims to ensure that patients who are unable to utilize the MBTA can still be serviced by this vital new medical facility,” Mariano continued.
Additional investments also included $5 million for the Holocaust Museum Boston, while the Senate considers $5 million for “transportation improvements” ahead of the World Cup next year.
The Massachusetts Senate will debate their own version of the $1.3 billion supplement budget this week, which could include large slashes to the hundreds of millions allocated to the MBTA and more dollars for local schools, according to the Globe.
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