Baker, Polito continue T overhaul push

Governor Charlie Baker testified in support of the MBTA overhaul bill earlier this week. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe staff

Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito sent a letter to lawmakers Thursday urging them to adopt his proposed MBTA overhaul, just days after Senate leaders moved to water down the administration’s plan.

“Taken alone, marginal changes to the oversight of the current MBTA organization will produce little or no meaningful improvement for the riders and employees of the MBTA, and will all but ensure that the MBTA continues to struggle to meet its basic mission of providing reliable public transit service for the people of Massachusetts,” they wrote.

Senate leaders have come out in opposition to Baker’s proposed fiscal and management control board, which would oversee the T for three to five years, arguing that it would create an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation board, recently filled with Baker appointments, currently oversees the T and several other transportation functions.

The administration has argued that only a separate panel, focused on the MBTA alone, could provide the focus and intensity required to fix the agency. Critics say splintering oversight of the state’s transportation system — which they argue should be governed as an interconnected whole — would be a mistake.

Senate leadership has also been skeptical of other elements of the governor’s plan, including a push for greater leeway to privatize services and to raise fares on trains, buses, and the commuter rail.

Those proposals, along with the fiscal control board plan, remain before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation.

The administration is pointing to support from some Democrats, including Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll and Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo, in their push to drive up support in the Legislature. Both lead communities served by the T.

Baker has at least some support in the Senate. William Brownsberger, a Democratic senator from Belmont, backed much of the governor’s plan in a Thursday blog post.