Massachusetts communities with rapid transit service have until Dec. 31 to enact zoning complying with the MBTA Communities act encouraging multifamily development. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman Staff / File
The Healey administration’s task force on transportation funding has access to all sorts of number-crunchers, including a high-priced consulting firm and state analysts on the payrolls of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the MBTA, and the Executive Office for Administration and Finance.
But that hasn’t stopped some task force members from the private sector from conducting their own research and analysis. The group includes officials from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, and the business group A Better City, as well as other organizations. The group has been meeting on the side to discuss transportation revenue options and strategy.
Sources say the side-meetings grew out of concern about the slow pace of the task force and frustration with the push for a “tool kit” of revenue options rather than a curated list of preferred options.
James Rooney, the president and CEO of the Chamber, cast the efforts of his organization as complementary to the work being done by the task force.
“The Chamber enthusiastically supports the task force as an active participant and continues to use our voice to drive a meaningful outcome,” he said in a statement. “This work requires that the Chamber continue, as we have long done, to do our homework and conduct research and analysis in support of and complementary to the activities of the task force.”
Rooney, a former general manager of the MBTA himself, noted in his statement that he and his organization have advocated over the past decade for improvements in the state’s transportation system and the necessary funding to make them happen.
“Over the past five years, the Chamber proposed legislation three times to create a mobility pricing and funding commission that was twice blocked by former Governor Baker. In 2023, when the proposal for a commission did not make it through the Legislature, we agreed with Governor Healey that this effort should move forward through an executive order creating the task force,” Rooney said in his statement.
The task force began its work with high hopes, with Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt pledging it would be different from similar groups that have tried unsuccessfully in the past to develop a solid funding framework for transportation in Massachusetts. In April, at an event hosted by the advocacy group WalkMassachusetts, Tibbits-Nutt sounded confident about the task force’s progress and mentioned several revenue options under consideration, including higher fees on Uber and Lyft rides, new fees on package deliveries, a payroll tax, and new tolls at the state’s borders.
Four days after CommonWealth Beacon first reported on her April comments, Healey issued a statement saying Tibbits-Nutt’s comments about border tolling didn’t represent the views of her administration. The governor later criticized the tone of some of her cabinet secretary’s other comments.
Tibbits-Nutt has said little about the goals of the task force since being reprimanded by the governor and the focus of the task force also appears to have shifted. Instead of assembling a list of recommended revenue-raising measures, a task force staffer told the MBTA board of directors that the goal is to develop a tool kit of measures for the Legislature and governor to consider.
Some on the task force, however, want the group to develop a package of revenue measures that would put transportation in Massachusetts on solid financial footing and then press for its passage on Beacon Hill. The task force is scheduled to complete its report by the end of the year.
This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
