Legislative Watch 
LEGISLATIVE
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2/13/04-Gov. Mitt Romney filed a $1.5 billion transportation bond bill Feb. 10 that guarantees $400 million annually to upgrade Massachusetts’ roads and bridges.
The funding would continue until 2012, extending a federal requirement passed in 2001 that the state spend at least $400 million annually on repairs other than the Big Dig. That agreement is expected to expire next year.
Romney’s plan calls for the state to borrow $425 million for federally assisted major road and bridge projects; $300 million in aid to cities and towns to repair roads and bridges; $210 million for road projects that are not federally assisted, and $102 million for regional transit authorities and freight rail rights-of-way purchases.
The proposal also includes $54 million to promote development near commuter rail stops, in line with the governor’s “transit-oriented development” program unveiled this fall.
State Transportation Secretary Daniel Grabauskas said the bill would also move the state closer to creating a single agency in charge of roads and bridges. The state currently has a Turnpike Authority, a highway department and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.
