Decaying dams pose risk, engineers say

Asking for funding for your budget priorities? Senator Jamie Eldridge asks you to support additional revenues...

Dozens of obsolete and crumbling dams, some built during the Industrial Revolution, are threatening safety, property, and delicate ecological habitats and should be repaired or removed, environmentalists and engineers urged lawmakers yesterday…

Senator James Eldridge, an Acton Democrat and vice chair of the committee, wondered whether the Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists, known as MOSES, would support a bill increasing the income tax on high-income earners to raise $1.25 billion to offset additional budget cuts. The bill would also raise the state’s capital gains tax to 8.9 percent from 5.3 percent, while calling for exemptions for low- and middle-income seniors.

“We would certainly be in favor of some form of revenue to support the program,’’ said Joseph Durant, president of MOSES, who noted that the Office of Dam Safety saw its budget slashed from $1.4 million in fiscal 2008 to $410,151 the following year, a 71 percent reduction. [Full Article: Boston Globe]