State seeks $1.4b in emergency funds

Governor Deval Patrick and legislative leaders proposed yesterday an emergency $1.47 billion borrowing package they said is needed to repair crumbling roads, bridges, and state buildings; to build a new psychiatric hospital for Central Massachusetts; and to begin work on promised transit projects meant to offset air pollution from the Big Dig.

Patrick said the bond bill is also needed to avoid losing nearly $1 billion in federal funding. "The bill is just a stopgap measure to address . . . urgent or immediate needs," said the governor, adding that he will propose a five-year capital spending plan in July.

House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, who joined Patrick at a State House press conference, said the Legislature could act on the package as soon as next week.

Supporters of projects in the bill were ecstatic yesterday after waiting years for funding.

The projects include $250 million for the new psychiatric hospital, which would allow the state to close facilities in Worcester and Westborough that are in disrepair.

"Both hospitals have become terrible; we really need to build a new one," said Senator Harriette L. Chandler, a Worcester Democrat and a member of a commission studying mental hospitals. The new hospital, she said, "will make such a difference for people in the central part of the state who have mental illness."

Administration officials said delaying the project would cost the state about $1 million a month in construction bills.

Representative John J. Binienda said he lobbied hard to have the hospital in Worcester rather than Westborough. But he said neither community would be slighted by placing the new facility on the site of the old Worcester hospital.

"I'm ecstatic that we're going to do it," said Binienda, a Worcester Democrat. "We've been trying to get it for years."

The road projects include a bridge in Quincy to ease traffic congestion downtown, reconstruction of Route 9 in Shrewsbury, and the widening of Route 138 in the business district in Taunton.

Taunton residents have been waiting for nearly a decade for those improvements. "It's at long last now coming up," said Mayor Charles Crowley.

The $10.8 million project is expected to help revitalize the southern portion of Taunton's downtown.

Mayor William J. Phelan of Quincy said the new bridge will help retain 2,000 jobs in a local office park and create up to 4,000 more.

This project will reduce congestion by building a new bridge to take Burgin Parkway traffic over Centre Street, create a new outbound ramp to an existing northbound ramp off Route 3, and reconstruct local intersections. At stake are 2,000 jobs, because the Crown Colony Office Park in that area could not expand without the changes, Phelan said.

"We were ready to front the state portion of this project just to get it going," Phelan said yesterday. "We were leery about whether this project was ever going to get going."

The list of projects also includes $100 million to design four transit projects tied to the Big Dig, estimated to cost a total of $739 million. They include the Green Line's extension to Medford and Union Square in Somerville, 1,000 additional parking spaces at commuter rail stops, new stations and improved service along the Fairmount commuter rail line, and a connector between the Red and Blue subway lines.

"We are very happy that the Patrick administration has started off on the right foot taking the necessary first steps to meet interim deadlines and ultimately get these projects built," said Carrie Russell, staff attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, which sued the state over the Big Dig transit commitments.

State lawmakers could not agree on a bond bill last year after the House sought $1.2 billion in borrowing, while the Senate wanted only $400 million. Even with quick approval by lawmakers this time, officials said the bond bill does not mean the projects would be built right away, with many still to be designed or put out to bid.

To save money, the bond bill proposes issuing a series of low-interest bonds to pay for projects that were to be funded with cash, then using the cash to pay off higher-interest bonds.

Secretary of Administration and Finance Leslie Kirwan said doing so is expected to save millions of dollars. The bill also proposes paying off the bonds over 30 years, instead of 20, meaning higher interest costs.

State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill said in a letter to the governor that extending the bonds to 30 years "should not be used extensively" to "needlessly push costs on to future taxpayers."

Chapter 90 funds that pay cities and towns for road and bridge repair are set at $150 million in the bill, the highest amount since 1999. That money funds projects in all 351 cities and towns for local road construction, preservation, and improvement projects. The fund, the only share of the state gas tax that municipalities receive for these projects, has been held at $100 million since 1999.

Raja Mishra of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Mac Daniel can be reached at mdaniel@globe.com.