Pete Buttigieg’s alma mater Harvard asked to ‘kill’ $335M of funding from infrastructure bill – despite $53B endowment

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Alma mater Harvard University is going to get a big benefit from this boston A highway mega-project in a neighborhood where it owns almost a third of the land and is paying less than 5% of the costs despite a $53 billion endowment.

back in march, US Department of Transportation $335 million announced In federal funding for the I-90 Allston Multimodal Project, a Estimated $1.9 billion An effort to rebuild a dilapidated section of the Massachusetts Turnpike and free up acres of land for an Ivy League school.

The project was conceived a decade ago and applied for $1.2 billion in funding. initially rejected Last year a Harvard administrator got Buttigieg’s approval on a nine-figure bid — all taken from President Biden’s acclaimed 2021 infrastructure legislation.

Harvard has agreed to pay just $90 million to help finance the project and nearby Boston University has agreed to pay $10 million.

Boston County Assessor Harvard’s land in Allston is estimated to be worth millions of dollars, although the price is expected to skyrocket once the university’s new campus is completed.

“When the project’s infrastructure is finally ready, (Harvard) is prepared to suffer real estate development,” An analysis of the project was completed,

In reference to its purchase in the early 2000s, the assessment states, “Where this property is concerned, the taxpayers of the Commonwealth have already been generous to Harvard.”

The project affects two major land plots owned by Harvard – a 48-acre section where it is building its Enterprise Research Campus and another, approximately 90 acres of land that is bisected by the turnpike and will be freed after the project.

Harvard acquired most of two parcels of land in Allston, about a 12-minute drive southwest of Cambridge, two decades ago when the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority was somewhat strapped for cash.

Notably, it purchased a 48-acre land parcel adjacent to the project for its upcoming Enterprise Research Campus, which was almost ready last year. $152 million in 2000Three years later, it purchased an approximately 90-acre plot under I-90 $75 millionWhich is reportedly planned to be used for housing after the I-90 Allston Multimodal Project is finished.

In August last year, a few months after the initial rejection of the funding request application by the US DOT, Ivy League Executive Vice President Meredith Wenik wrote a letter to Buttigieg, 42, supporting a new application from the city.

“Harvard is pleased to have the opportunity to support MassDOT’s application by memorializing future commitments and outlining the foundational steps the University has taken to support this project over the past two decades,” Wenik said. written in letter,

He further claimed that the Cambridge, Mass. institution invested hundreds of millions The dollar value of “enabling costs” for the project was paid for by relocating the former railyard, among other steps.

Buttigieg graduated from Harvard in 2004 said earlier He received “the benefits of higher education” from the school.

After city officials provided more details than the initial inquiry, the US DOT came forward and offered $335 million for the project, securing $1.2 trillion in funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law.

“This project aims to modernize and improve the safety of Boston’s Allston neighborhood and is led by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which is in charge of funding the project,” a U.S. DOT spokesperson told The Post.

“This is one of 66,000 locally-led infrastructure projects now underway in every state and community across the country, thanks to $568 billion in funding from the bipartisan infrastructure legislation.”

Massachusetts residents are expected to receive an additional $920 million for this project. Boston would pay some $200 million and $200 million more would come from turnpike tolls.

Some state-taxpayer financing will come from a millionaire’s tax Massachusetts voters approved by a narrow margin in 2022 a 4 percentage point increase in the tax rate on annual income over $4 million, which was projected to bring in about $1.3 billion statewide last year.

There are some indications that Massachusetts is suffering from outward migration of wealth. A study from Pioneer Institute Found that adjusted gross income out-migration increased from $900 million in 2012 to $4.3 billion in 2021.

The state’s delegation in Congress appreciated the US DOT’s funding for the I-90 Allston Multimodal Project.

Earlier this month, Buttigieg celebrated the third anniversary of bipartisan infrastructure legislation.

“We are in the middle of the decade of infrastructure that this country has seen since Eisenhower and the Interstate Highway System. 2020 will be seen as a turning point, ushering in the reforms that will sustain our 21st and even 22nd century economy,” he announced in a video.

That same week, he also said With the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School.

The project is expected to take six to 10 years and will straighten a section of the highway in Allston near the Charles River, streamline the tangle of ramps there and create a new MBTA station: West Station.

The Post contacted Harvard University for comment.