GOV. MAURA HEALEY met Tuesday with her transportation funding task force as its members convened their final session and prepared to submit a final draft of a report expected to be released in the coming days.
While the task force was charged, through an executive order, with “making recommendations for a long-term sustainable transportation finance plan,” its more immediate focus in the forthcoming report appears to be stabilizing finances through the millionaires tax passed by voters in 2022.
The 4 percent income tax surcharge on income over $1 million, which is to be directed to education and transportation needs, has generated more money than Beacon Hill budget-writers had expected. While more money so far has gone to education than transportation, task force members and legislators have discussed moving toward a more even 50-50 split.
Healey acknowledged the MBTA is facing a fiscal cliff, a gap of hundreds of millions of dollars that could lead to layoffs and severe service cuts. The T has been struggling to return to normal after the pandemic, with ridership and revenue still below pre-COVID levels.
“It’s like a burning building, you know, or it’s like, a crumbling foundation, right?” Healey said during an appearance on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” just before she met with the task force.
She noted the MBTA’s general manager, Phil Eng, started with “immediate” repairs to eliminate slow zones throughout the subway system. “Similarly with transportation, it seems to me shoring up and stabilizing the immediate needs, the immediate bleeding there so there’s stability in that is absolutely imperative. And whatever the task force recommendations are, it’s not going to end with the task force,” she said.
The 31-member task force is wrapping up its work behind schedule – it originally planned to issue its report on December 31 – and as the governor’s State of the Commonwealth address, set for January 16, approaches. In her speech last year, Healey pledged that her administration “will not kick the can down the road” on transportation financing.
She reiterated that on “Boston Public Radio” on Tuesday. “We are not about kicking the can. We’re about trying to do as much as we can using all the tools available,” she said. “The task force is important, but is not the endgame or the end-all or be-all of the work that we’re looking to do when it comes to transportation.”
Healey indicated she plans to handle some of the recommendations of the task force through the budget. Her budget chief, who is also a co-chair of the task force, Matt Gorzkowicz, told reporters after the task force meeting that the final task force report will include “actionable” items.
But details ahead of the release of the final report remain scarce. Tuesday’s task force meeting took place behind closed doors, in the boardroom of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) building in downtown Boston. Security guards stood at both entrances, one of them consulting a list of people before allowing anyone in.
Through the boardroom’s transparent doors and windows, Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll could be seen staying for the entire meeting, which lasted just over an hour. Roughly two dozen members sat around tables, in front of eight rows of empty chairs where members of the public and the media typically sit during MBTA or MassDOT board meetings. At the end of the task force’s meeting, members posed for a photo with Healey.
Gorzkowicz and Monica Tibbits-Nutt, Healey’s transportation secretary and the task force’s other co-chair, briefly spoke with reporters afterwards, noting that the comment period for the final draft is still open.
When asked about the task force meeting behind closed doors, Tibbits-Nutt said the move gave an opportunity for members to have “in-depth” discussions about concerns and their constituencies. The information behind the task force report will be posted online once the report is released, she added.
“I don’t want to get ahead of the comments we’re going to have for the final draft but this is really going to be talking about the full breadth of options when we talk about funding,” Tibbits-Nutt said. “This is comprehensive. This is looking at that short term, the mid term, the long term, looking at every possible funding option that has been seen around the world, that has been seen within the United States, especially when we’re talking about transportation.”
That would suggest that congestion pricing will be at least mentioned in the final report. The policy went into effect on Monday in New York City, establishing a zone in Manhattan where a toll is levied on cars entering during peak traffic hours. The revenue from the policy is meant to go towards transportation infrastructure improvements.
Asked about the policy on “Boston Public Radio,” Healey said she first has to talk to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and she wants to “see how things are going in New York.”
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