MBTA officials will hold off until at least March before resorting to fare increases or service cuts, waiting for lawmakers as they debate potential tax hikes to address the state’s long-simmering crisis in transportation funding, the T’s new general manager said Wednesday.
MBTA general manager Beverly Scott, in her first extended interview since starting last week, said she hopes lawmakers in the next two months will come up with new funding for the T, relieving pressure on the agency to once more raise fares or cut service to balance its budget.
Comments
This comment has been removed.
I wish Beverly Scott all of the luck in the world. Boston needs to realize that people would rather take the "T" than drive the congested roadways. It seems that we are skimping on this great transportation system in much the sae way that we skimped on The Big Dig.
It is time that the Big Dig debt burden is removed from the mass transit system. The benefit was mostly for motorists, so motorists should pay for that. The best way to do that is to increase the gasoline tax by a penny or two a gallon each year for the next 10 years, with part of that dedicated to Big Dig debt and part dedicated to maintenance of roadways. Perhaps tolls could be removed from the Mass Pike as well, with payment replaced by the gas tax. The Big Dig should not be paid for by Mass Pike drivers and mass transit users. It should be paid for by the motorists of the state. The gas tax increase could be limited to the eastern part of the state. Perhaps the City of Boston would get a three cent increase, inside 128 gets a two cent increase, inside 495 gets a one cent increase.
Talk of replacing all toll collectors with machines makes it apparent that removing tolls from the Mass Pike will not eliminate toll taker jobs: that is already in the planning. These toll takers should be retrained into some other position needed by the state, with the most senior ones offered an incentive to retire.
P.S. Please do not seek to find a way to tax electric or other alternative fuel vehicles. These vehicles should be encouraged, not discouraged. They provide cleaner air for all of us to breath, and reduce demand for gasoline.
A gas tax hike remotely comparable to the burden of the last twenty years of fare increases would go a long way towards stabilizing the transportation budget. And while we're at it, lets turn the gas tax into a percentage tax so that it doesn't keep losing value over time.