November 26, 2008 Newsnight: Bailing out the Turnpike Play video

(NECN: Jim Braude) - The powers on Beacon Hill are debating whether to rescue the Mass Turnpike Authority from bankruptcy with toll hikes or higher gas taxes. Meanwhile, some legislators are rejecting both options, and threatening to investigate some Turnpike financing deals.

Consider these numbers, as reported in the Boston Globe. Some of the banks that were in the thick of the mortgage meltdowns made deals called "swaptions" with the Turnpike Authority. And now the bill for those swaptions is ballooning into the hundreds of millions.

Jim's guests on this segment of Newsnight will make sense of the Turnpike financial woes. They are communications consultant Tom palmer, formerly of the Boston Globe, and Dan Kennedy, who teaches at Northeastern and writes for his own "media nation" blog.