A consultant hired by the MBTA said the transit agency got played by the firm hired to build the Green Line extension to Somerville as a contracting approach designed to speed up construction and eliminate cost overruns failed on a massive scale.

The consultant, Berkeley Research Group, reported to the T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board on Monday as the agency tries to figure out whether to push ahead with the project, which was put on hold when the cost ballooned from $2 billion to $3 billion.

The T hired White Skanska Kiewit to build the Green Line extension using a new contracting approach that was supposed to speed construction along while requiring the contractor to live within a set budget. But the Berkeley Research Group said poor oversight by the 10 MBTA employees (just four full-time equivalents) overseeing the project and lapses by consultants hired by the T allowed the contractor to keep upping its price.

According to the Berkeley Research Group, White Skanska Kiewit would set its price for a section of the project at 110 percent of the cost estimate developed by a consultant hired by the T, but then the consultant would up its estimate, allowing the contractor to boost its price.

“It strikes me as sort of illogical,” said Steve Poftak, a member of the Fiscal and Management Control Board. “Why is [the price] moving?”

“I can’t wrap my mind around it either,” replied Terry Yeager of the Berkeley Research Group.

Berkeley released its findings in a brief slide presentation that offered up relatively few details. White Skanska Kiewit declined comment, so it’s unclear whether there is another explanation for what happened. T officials have refused to release the full report, citing “attorney-client privilege.”

Rafael Mares, a vice president at the Conservation Law Foundation, told State House News that the Green Line extension involves light surface rail on existing, surface rights-of-way (no tunnels) with $1 billion in federal subsidies. “If we can’t do this project, there’s no other project that we can do,” Mares said.

The troubling news about the Green Line came as the MBTA said it was considering early retirements, elimination of late-night service, and changes to The Ride to cover a budget shortfall. Passenger fare increases also seem to be in the works, but how big they will be remains unclear as lawmakers bicker over what limit they imposed on fare hikes in legislation passed in 2013.

The Baker administration and House lawmakers say the wording of the law clearly allows the T to raise fares a total of 10 percent over a two-year period. Senate officials say they intended an increase of no more than 5 percent over two years. Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said the intent of the law is clear, and warned the T that it would need legislative approval for any increase above 5 percent.

 
BEACON HILL

The Revenue Department estimates the proposed millionaire’s tax would yield as much as $2.2 billion more for the state. (State House News)

A Herald editorial backs Sen. Jamie Eldridge‘s bill to create a “legislative fiscal office” that would offer unbiased fiscal analysis of the impact of any proposed legislation.

A Lowell Sun editorial endorses Gov. Charlie Baker’s legislation to deal with homelessness.

A transgender rights bill is stalled for now on Beacon Hill as proponents try to develop a strategy for advancing the legislation next year. (Boston Globe)

The Berkshire Eagle wants to see the age limit for tobacco purchases raised to 21.

A developer is proposing to build retail and commercial space as well as apartments and a YMCA at the site of the former Fuller School in Gloucester. The apartments, particularly those priced at affordable rates, are raising concerns. (Gloucester Times)

Mayor Marty Walsh says he is not going to rush the process of selecting a new president for the Boston Public Library following what he called a “bumpy year” for the system. (Boston Herald)

Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch will make the final determination on the fate of a police lieutenant who is the highest paid employee of the city and who has been on leave pending an investigation into alleged double dipping. (Patriot Ledger)

A Pittsfield police officer who stole $150,000 from the International Brotherhood of Police Officers chapter he headed has been fired. (Berkshire Eagle)

President Obama plans to deliver an early State of the Union address (January 12) in 2016. (New York Times)

Texas threatens to sue resettlement groups if they accept Syrian refugees. (Governing)

The former speaker of the New York State Assembly is convicted of all seven counts of corruption, one of several cases federal prosecutors have brought to weed out what they say is the culture of influence peddling in Albany. (New York Times)

The newly elected mayor of Juneau, Alaska, is found dead in his home. (KTVA Alaska)

More than 40 years after the terrorist attacks at the 1972 Munich Olympics, long-hidden details are emerging about the brutal treatment of the Israeli victims, including beatings and castration that some were forced to witness as they were tied up. (New York Times)

A top aide suggested in an email months before she was due to leave office that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “run up the score on total countries” she visits in the post. Clinton has often touted her global travels while on the campaign trail. (Boston Globe)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the only female Democratic senator to skip a Hillary Clinton endorsement event. (ABC News)

“Donald Trump is a liar,” writes Michael Cohen. (Boston Globe)

A meeting with scores of black pastors touted by Trump’s campaign as an endorsement resulted in a small private meeting with a handful of ministers and no public proclamation after many of the clergy members say they were either wrongly included as participants or backed out because they had no intention of endorsing the bombastic candidate. (New York Times)

Voters around the country are increasingly challenging redistricting maps in court that give advantages to the ruling political party in the state. Some want to give the job of redistricting to someone other than state lawmakers. (U.S. News & World Report)

Why climate change won’t be a winning issue in 2016. (Christian Science Monitor)

The unemployment rate in Brockton is at a seven-year low following the recession, with jobs in trucking leading the way to the recovery, according to state data. (The Enterprise)

CommonWealth sits down for a Q&A with David Welch, the wealthy Silicon Valley executive who funded the Vergara court case that upended teacher tenure in California — and has sent shock waves across the country as similar cases are filed or considered.

A student at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School was shot in the leg near the Roxbury school just after noon yesterday. (Boston Globe)

Senate President Stanley Rosenberg refers to charter schools as an “experimental approach to education” that perhaps should not be allowed to expand. (State House News)

The new CEO of the Joslin Diabetes Clinic takes over during a challenging healthcare environment for stand-alone specialty centers like his. (Boston Globe)

Former Fall River mayor Will Flanagan is representing a group seeking a permit to open a 30,000-square foot facility to cultivate medical marijuana in the city’s bio-tech park. (Herald News)

The CEO of Newton-Wellesley Hospital resigns. (Boston Globe)

Gov. Charlie Baker worries that the MBTA pension system is too cloaked in secrecy to know the full implications of a possible early-retirement incentive offer. (Boston Herald)

Hunters killed 26 deer on the first day of a program at the Blue Hills Reservation to cull the growing population. (Patriot Ledger)

Salem and Swampscott are aggregating their residents to negotiate better deals for electricity. (Salem News)

Eating striped bass may be hazardous to your health: Massachusetts is the only state on the East Coast that does not warn people about the toxins in the fish. (Cape Cod Times)

Without offering many details, a prosecutor describes Philip Chism’s murder of his teacherColleen Ritzer as a “sexually motivated homicide.” (Eagle-Tribune)

The Herald‘s Jessica Helsam talks to a Boston high school student who details the approach used by gangs to try to recruit new members into their dead-end life.

Three police officials in Lowell are reprimanded in connection with a fourth officer caught sleeping in his cruiser on the job. (The Sun)

A woman from Dorchester is arrested in connection with the theft of weapons from an armory in Worcester. (Telegram & Gazette) The MassLive story is here.

Republican columnist Ron Chimelis talks about his relationship with Michael Meeropol, one of the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed for spying for the Soviet Union in 1953. Michael and his brother Robert are seeking a presidential pardon for their mother. (MassLive)

The New York Times used the honorific Mx. in a story for someone who didn’t want to be identified by gender. (Observer)

An anti-racism group in Brazil investigates nasty Facebook comments, finds out where the trolls live, and buys billboard space to display the comments near the offenders’ homes. (BBC News)