The administration says the MBTA needs the $870 million to stay afloat and preserve progress made in the last two years, but “this didn’t look like equity or anything close,” two legislators say.
In her first public appearance as transportation secretary, Monica Tibbits-Nutt laid out her vision Wednesday for a unified transportation system that helps address some of Massachusetts’ biggest problems, previewed a “hard, hard discussion” about more state money for the MBTA
More than three-quarters of Massachusetts residents support boosting funding for the state’s 15 regional transit authorities, which provide local bus and paratransit services beyond the reach of the MBTA.
Just about two months before the first few dollars in extra income tax will begin to trickle into state coffers, the Legislative Regional Transit Authority Caucus is joining other transportation and education advocates in positioning their priorities to receive those funds.
Massachusetts is set to receive a first-year increase of more than $215 million to the funding it receives for highways and transit, a state Department of Transportation official said Wednesday.
Business leaders can’t let any pessimism get in the way of holding state leaders accountable for achieving the transit transformation Massachusetts desperately needs.
