About half of the $42.7 billion Senate budget proposal is consumed by spending in just three areas – health care, pensions and debt service – leaving some senators worried about underinvestment in other priority areas like transportation, housing and the environment.
Solutions to the MBTA’s predicament are out there, but the state’s two highly capable transportation leaders, Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack and MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak, need Gov. Charlie Baker to empower them to take unconventional steps to enact them quickly.
At a time when frustrated riders are calling for immediate investment to make public transit more reliable, the MBTA’s general manager wants to more gradually spread out capital spending to give the T more time to hire the people needed to oversee the work.
