Snow plow drivers furious about state pay

February 29, 2008 12:41 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff

Massachusetts snow plow operators are furious with the state Legislature for failing to pay them $69 million owed for clearing off roads this winter.

Plow operators in the Massachusetts Snow & Ice Contractors Association voted late Thursday night to continue working through this winter while they push legislators to approve a supplemental budget bill needed to pay them. But they also voted not to sign a contract with the state to replace their current pact that expires in May unless it includes a "prompt pay" clause, association president Matt Frazier said.

"You've got to understand the emotions of contractors that are owed tens of millions of dollars,'' said Frazier, who runs a Wellfleet company that plows stretches of Route 6 on Cape Cod. One "mom and pop" contractor in rural Worcester County is waiting for $110,000, Frazier said, and many members are resorting to home-equity loans and personal loans to stay solvent while they wait to get paid.

It's almost a rite of spring, or late winter, for plow contractors to complain each year around this time that the state is dragging its feet on paying them. But this year the situation is far worse than usual, Frazier said, because there have been many more, deeper storms to clear this winter than last, and plowing companies are facing record-high prices for the diesel fuel most commonly used in big trucks. The current American Automobile Association/Oil Price Information Service shows that diesel is averaging $3.72 across Massachusetts, the highest price in the decade-long history of the survey, up from $2.66 this time last year.

Governor Deval Patrick submitted a request to the Legislature Feb. 1 for money to pay the plowing contractors, which is pending before the House of Representatives. The state has already run through the $24 million allocated in this year's budget for snow and ice removal, but has run up $93 million in costs with private contractors for clearing snow and ice, Frazier said.

Aides to Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and Ways and Means Chairman Robert DeLeo were not immediately available this morning for comment on when legislators will take up the bill. Highway Department spokesman Adam Hurtubise said the agency was grateful to their plowers for their work so far this winter and could not comment on the supplemental spending issue because that is entirely up to legislators.

For the long term, state Senators Marc R. Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat, and Bruce E. Tarr, a Gloucester Republican, are trying to get legislation passed allowing the Highway Department to pay plowing contractors regardless of whether legislators have appropriated money. But making that change is complicated because state law strictly forbids government agencies from paying out money legislators haven't approved, even making it a crime for department commissioners to overspend their approved budgets.