Beacon Hill is immersed in debate over how many more millions of dollars to devote to the MBTA, but transit services outside of the T region are absorbed in their own challenges they must face with even less funding.
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.
It is essential that this new source of revenue be used to strengthen transportation infrastructure, and RTAs are key in realizing a robust transit system that delivers for all residents.
The transit agencies that provide bus service to the hundreds of cities and towns across Massachusetts not covered by the MBTA would see a serious boost in funding under the state Senate’s plan to spend the first haul of funds from the new Millionaires Tax.
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.
Tens of thousands rely on the MBTA and other transit agencies to get around. For them to safely go back to work, these systems will need to move faster and more reliably. Local and state officials need to give them the tools to do so.
As the House zeroes in on a transportation financing proposal, one of House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s senior deputies said Tuesday that the bill could be a “generational gamechanger” for transportation across the state.
