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Daily Update 10/21: Millions Saved in Turnpike Agreement

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Governor’s Daily Update
Schools, Jobs, and Civic Engagement
Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Today: Wednesday, October 21, 2009

 

  • Earlier this morning, Governor Patrick visited the Jackson Street School in Northampton to discuss how federal stimulus is being put to work in Hampshire County.

 

  • This morning, Governor Patrick attended the Culture in the Workplace event at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

 

  • This afternoon, Governor Patrick held a community meeting with young adults at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Student Union Center.

 

  • Later this afternoon, Governor Patrick made an economic development announcement about the Holyoke High Performance Computing Center. Learn more here and read the Springfield Republican.

 

In the Press:

Governor Patrick visits with elementary school students at the Jackson Street School in Northampton today.


 

  • Transportation Reform Saves Taxpayers $71 Million – After months of negotiations, Governor Deval Patrick today announced that the Administration has reached agreement with financial institution UBS that will save the Commonwealth an estimated $71 million. Due to five risky financial transactions - so-called "swaptions" - entered into by the Turnpike Authority in 2001, the Authority was at direct risk this year of having to pay UBS $261 million. Governor Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo passed historic transportation reform that improved the Authority's bond rating, negating the need to pay $190 million of that amount in July. While four of the five swaps were cured immediately, a fifth was at risk of being terminated by UBS, potentially costing the Commonwealth $71 million. Under the terms of the deal negotiated by the Administration and signed with UBS, however, the July rating upgrade of the Turnpike Authority's MHS senior bonds to A- will be sufficient to prevent termination of the fifth swap. “Transportation reform has already produced significant savings for the people of Massachusetts, and today’s agreement is a further indication of the positive results we can expect to see from our landmark reform,” said Governor Patrick. “I thank the entire team for efforts to reach an agreement that is fair and favorable for the tollpayers and the Commonwealth.” Learn more here and read coverage in the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe.


 

  • Controlling Health Care Costs for Small Businesses – Governor Patrick’s plans to help reduce health care premium rates for small businesses has been met with support by the business community. “Jon B. Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said the steps proposed by the governor would make a difference for small businesses. ‘At this point, the Division of Insurance doesn’t have the authority to do anything but object. They want to get more proactive and get involved in the setting of those rates,’ Mr. Hurst said. ‘Something is going wrong here when you have small businesses and their employees seeing annual increases of 15 percent and higher’ while the state’s group insurance commission plans for public employees and the state’s connector health plans for individuals are seeing rate hikes of 3 to 5 percent.”  Learn more about the Governor’s proposals here. Read more in the Worcester Telegram, the Patriot Ledger, and the Associated Press.


  • Real World Design Challenge Kick-Off – The Patrick-Murray Administration today announced the 2009 “Real World Design Challenge,” an innovative partnership to enhance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in Massachusetts with the goal of training tomorrow’s engineers, especially in the aerospace industry. At an event held at the State House, Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray announced the second year for the “Real World Design Challenge,” a partnership involving the Commonwealth, U.S. Department of Energy, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Parametric Technology Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Business Educational Partnerships Group, Mentor Graphics (formerly Flomerics, Inc.), Education Development Center, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts NASA Space Grant, and others. Learn more here.

 

This Week:

  • On Monday afternoon, Governor Patrick attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Millipore Corporation’s solar panel installation project in Bedford.

 

  • Later Monday afternoon, Governor Patrick attended a legislative leadership meeting.

 

  • Tuesday morning, Governor Patrick made an announcement relative to small businesses in Quincy.