State airplane falls victim to Patrick budget cutting

Drivers waited, many for more than an hour, to conduct business at the Registry office in Chinatown. Cuts to the transportation budget could mean longer waits at the RMV statewide. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

Governor Deval Patrick did his own Sarah Palin imitation last week, ordering a state airplane sold to cut costs.

But don't expect the latest gubernatorial plane sale to launch a vice presidential nomination, or a vicious war among political bloggers, a la Palin.

Patrick did not even mention the aircraft sale publicly; he's never ridden in it, according to state officials; and few in the state were aware it existed.

It's sitting in a hanger in Norwood Memorial Airport, a Cessna-182 purchased in 1974 for $22,000. (By contrast, the Alaska jet famously sold by Palin - though not on eBay - was worth more than $2 million.) An obscure state agency, the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission, owns the plane and at one time used it to travel to small airports for inspections, according to Klark Jessen, spokesman for the state transportation secretary, Bernard Cohen.

"It has been used very little in recent years," Jessen said.

The last logged hours were a year ago, when airport inspector Richard Bunker flew it for three hours to make sure it was still running, Jessen said.

The plane may have been used to transport more prominent public officials in years past on an emergency basis, but even that is not clear, Jessen said. "It was never, for example, assigned to a particular elected official," he said.

The sale was one of the smaller moves Patrick made last week when he announced $1 billion in budget reductions. It is expected to save taxpayers $27,750 per year in maintenance and storage fees.

Jessen said he was not sure what the plane would fetch on the open market.

"You're probably talking $40,000 to $60,000," said Matt Goulian, an owner of Executive Flyers Aviation at Hanscom Field, a Cessna service center and dealer.

Goulian likened the four-seat plane to a Toyota Camry - quality without the flash.

Patrick's spokesman, Kyle Sullivan, said the governor's number-crunchers only found out about the plane recently, from Cohen's office.

"The governor asked all his Cabinet secretaries to dig deep and scrub every area of their budgets to find cost savings and efficiencies," Sullivan said. "When the existence of this plane was brought to our attention, this decision was quick and simple. Sell it."

When asked if this will help make Patrick a future presidential sidekick, Sullivan declined to comment.

Facing longer waits at RMV
Other cuts to the state transportation budget will hit residents harder, including Patrick's prediction last week that drivers would have to wait longer to renew licenses and take care of other business at the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

The Registry was already struggling, with the average wait times rising from less than 10 minutes in 2005 to more than 15 minutes last year - and climbing yet higher in 2008, according to preliminary numbers.

Now the worse news. Because of hiring freezes and budget cuts, the Registry is shrinking its hours beginning Nov. 3.

Most branches that now open at 8:30 a.m. will open at 9 a.m. And the 18 busiest branches that stay open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays will then be open to only 6 p.m. that day. (Check the website, mass.gov/rmv, before your next visit.)

The changes are designed to reduce the number of employee shifts, keep more windows open during the busiest times, and lop another $40,000 from the budget. They also make it less likely you can visit the Registry without missing significant time at work.

Registrar Rachel Kaprielian said she still wants to cut down on delays in the future and hopes that the Registry's push for more online services will help in the absence of a beefier budget. In addition to cutting hours, the Registry will no longer mail out "courtesy" notices reminding people of the need to renew their licenses and other bureaucratic chores, which is expected to save $800,000 a year.

Cut in bus routes possible
Patrick's cuts may also mean fewer long-haul bus routes that bring commuters into Boston from Marlborough, Northborough, Newburyport, Worcester, Marshfield, Taunton, Plymouth, and other towns in between.

The state, through the MBTA, has subsidized private bus companies for about two decades to run those lines, according to private bus companies that run them. The combined subsidy is $408,500. Jessen said the administration targeted routes where commuter rail or alternate bus service is available, and that it will be up to the private companies to decide ultimately whether to keep the bus runs going. (The Taunton and Plymouth subsidies were reduced, rather than eliminated.)

"We're analyzing the situation at the present time and have not made a decision on whether we are going to cut the lines or try to hold onto one of them," said Joan Libby, owner of Cavalier Coach, which runs the Northborough and Marlborough routes, both of which stop in other towns.

Libby said she would like to hold onto at least one, and that many of her passengers lack a convenient alternative. "I'm sure everybody's holding their breath," she said.

Peter Pan, which runs two weekday trips from Worcester and a third from Framingham, is also evaluating plans. Despite a $126,000 subsidy last year, the company still took a slight loss on the service, said Mike Sharff, director of planning for the company. The company sold 20,000 tickets last year, or about 80 tickets per weekday.

Bob Schwarz, executive vice president of Peter Pan, said the service will stay in place until at least the middle of next month and that passengers will be notified when the company makes a final decision.

Please send complaints, comments, or story ideas to starts@globe.com. The column and a listing of major road closures and other transportation advisories can be found at www.boston.com/starts.