Boston Globe Denounces House Speaker Ron Mariano for $25M Pet Project Amid Tight State Budget

5.7.25

 

BOSTON, MA — The Massachusetts Republican Party is drawing attention to an editorial by the Boston Globe Tuesday morning that eviscerates House Speaker Ron Mariano (D-Quincy) for slipping a $25 million earmark into the state budget funding a gargantuan parking garage for a special interest in his district.

 

In their editorial, the Globe board writes that Mariano “reels in last-minute pork” by taking funds from the graduated income tax — intended to fund roads and schools across the Commonwealth — to build a 500-car garage in his hometown of Quincy to benefit a new Beth Israel Deaconess medical facility.

 

Mariano’s budget-busting earmark — which accounts for $1 out of every $3 added on the House floor last week — is just one of the wasteful items passed under the guise of improvements to roads and schools. Others include $300,000 for the New Bedford Whaling Museum Welcome Center, $50,000 for the Sports Museum’s “Boston vs. Bullies programming,” and $100,000 for the NEADS World Class Service Dogs to “administer, expand, and digitize the NEADS Red Vest Accessible program,” the Globe reports.

 

Just last week, a ranking by Realtor.com gave Massachusetts an ‘F’ in homebuilding and affordability. Meanwhile, the migrant shelter crisis is predicted to draw half a billion dollars from the state budget in 2025, underscoring the lack of attention Massachusetts’ Democratic supermajority is paying to the kitchen table issues that matter most to voters.

 

“It’s not every day that the MassGOP joins with progressive activists to denounce Beacon Hill, but today is one of those rare occasions. 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 with $245,000 dollars,” said Executive Director John Milligan. “The migrant shelter crisis continues to bleed money from our budget while Massachusetts is ranked the second-most expensive state for families, but State House leadership is still managing to use taxpayer dollars to take care of the friends who have long taken care of them.”

 

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