Faced with a $5.5 billion backlog in building maintenance across the state public higher education system, Governor Charlie Baker’s top education official said Massachusetts must focus on repairing old buildings before constructing new ones.
And of the dozens of projects that need attention, Education Secretary James A. Peyser said the crumbling underground garage at the University of Massachusetts Boston is the most pressing problem, and he wants it fixed as soon as possible.
“The substructure is the one that’s the most urgent,’’ Peyser said in a phone interview. “And in some ways the one that’s been hanging around the longest.’’
The underground garage has become a focal point of the many financial problems at the UMass Boston campus. It is also symbolic of the patchwork of overdue construction projects laid out across the state’s 29 college and university campuses, projects stalled for lack of money, attention, or sometimes because of political obstacles.
The capital budget plan Baker released this month includes projects that range from repairs to Blinn Hall, an administration, classroom, and conference building at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy; to retrofitting the energy and water system at Fitchburg State University; to modernizing the Mainstage Theater at Salem State University.
Overall, the administration’s capital budget for fiscal year 2018 includes about $190 million for the state’s five UMass campuses, nine state colleges and universities, and 15 community colleges, many of which were built at least 40 or 50 years ago. That is about the same as the amount allocated over each of the past 10 years, Peyser told legislative budget writers recently, according to a copy of his testimony.
Peyser said the state is making a detailed assessment of the condition of every building on every campus. That has already been done for the UMass campuses, he said, and the rest should be done by the end of the calendar year.
Peyser said his strategy of repairing old problems before tackling new projects especially makes sense because the number of college students nationwide is projected to remain flat or drop in the near future. The number of students who attend state universities and community colleges declined over the past five years, data show. At UMass, however, enrollment has risen slightly over that same period, according to the system office.
Some projects are likely to cost significant money but will do little to improve the looks of the campus or entice prospective students. At UMass Dartmouth, for example, building exteriors and roofs need to be replaced to stop leaks, and the 40-year-old steam system that heats and cools the buildings needs to be replaced, according to that school’s website.
Peyser, a charter school advocate and former Pioneer Institute director who was appointed by Baker after he was elected in 2014, pointed to the record amount of money — $78 million — that the state pledged recently to help pay for the underground garage at UMass Boston as proof that it is a priority.
This year’s capital budget includes $6 million for a study of the garage; the $78 million will be in next year’s budget, officials have said.
In speaking to the Legislature recently, Peyser also said he wants to change the system through which higher education construction and maintenance projects are assigned. In the past, he said, projects for the UMass system were prioritized, shortchanging the community colleges.
The Pioneer Institute, a think tank that Peyser led for seven years, produced several critical reports about UMass over the past year on topics ranging from its increase of out-of-state students to the maintenance backlog.
In response to Peyser’s testimony earlier this month, the institute issued a long statement that praised Peyser’s approach and blamed UMass system president Martin T. Meehan and UMass trustees for allowing UMass Boston to expand while ignoring maintenance.
Jim Stergios, the institute director, compared the UMass situation to the runaway MBTA train that careened through Red Line stations in 2015 after a conductor locked down the acceleration switch and failed to set an emergency brake.
“They kind of stepped off the train and kind of put the lever, thought they’d secured it, but the fact is they didn’t,’’ Stergios said. “And it’s a bit of a runaway train.’’
Recent attention to the unsafe condition of the UMass garage has triggered a round of finger-pointing among the state, the UMass system office, and the campus over who should be responsible for paying to demolish it and the old science building that sits atop.
Peyser said the campus has a responsibility to share the cost, which is estimated to be at least $155 million and up to $260 million. Meehan, in a phone interview, agreed that the underground garage is a critical priority and praised the state for its newfound commitment of $78 million.
“This substructure has been an issue for many years and this is the only significant commitment that has been made, and this issue didn’t just pop up this year,’’ said Meehan, who took over as system president in July 2015 after eight years as chancellor of UMass Lowell.
Meehan also said it is unrealistic to assume the state will pay for all of it and urged the campus to come up with the rest.
“I would love the state to pay 100 percent of it, but it would probably eat up all the money for deferred maintenance for the entire public education system,’’ he said.
UMass board chairman Robert Manning said he believes the campus needs to first stop losing money before it tackles deferred maintenance including the garage.
The garage has been closed since 2006 because it is unsafe, but outgoing chancellor J. Keith Motley’s administration has so far not addressed it. It is crumbling because it was built with poor quality materials. A corruption scandal with the company that oversaw the project sent two state senators to jail for extortion.
UMass Boston has constructed several buildings over the past decade, and more are underway. It is also in the midst of a project to relocate campus utilities, which run through the underground garage. Administrators say that project, which has had many delays and cost overruns, must be complete before they can demolish the garage.
Motley is set to depart at the end of June after a decade as chancellor. He announced his resignation in April amid public pressure over the size of the operating deficit, which grew to what could have been $30 million this year. Administrators say they have now reduced it to $7 million.
At a forum this month, Barry Mills, UMass Boston’s new budget chief, said the project will definitely cost more than $155 million because that number does not include a new building to replace the science center that will come down.
Laura Krantz can be reached at laura.krantz@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @laurakrantz.
