A new report says the MBTA and MassDOT are falling billions of dollars behind on funding — though the agencies are saying some of the numbers are wrong.
The report from the A Better City organization says the T and the Department of Transportation are staring down the barrel of an $8.4 billion funding “gap” over the next decade, and must raise revenue from other sources such as tolling or taxes.
The group, which is led by former Boston transportation chief Richard Dimino, says $1.9 billion of that is on the T side — and that the long-beleaguered transit agency will have to increasingly borrow more in the coming years. The report says MassDOT is on track to end up $6.5 billion short, with the costs driven by bridge work, operations and paving.
“This is the amount needed beyond the funding included in current budget plans,” the report states.
But MassDOT and the T beg to differ, saying A Better City overlooks billions in planned capital investment from the past few years and the next several, and includes projects that were proposed but never chosen to go forward.
“At this time, the Department has not been able to evaluate the $8.4 billion funding ‘gap’ referenced in this report,” state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said in a statement. “MassDOT and the MBTA will continue to make future investments based on a clear list of priorities, which is consistent with the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Transportation. The expensive project list included in the Better City report has not been included in MassDOT nor MBTA capital planning documents.”
The report’s punchline is that the state needs to figure out a way to raise more revenue. The group mentions several ways of doing that, including passing a gasoline-tax hike or by increasing tolling in various ways. Voters repealed a law in 2014 that tied the gas tax to inflation.
Charlie Chieppo, a transportation watcher for The Pioneer Institute, said, “Any new money needs to be tied to reforms.”
“The work that’s been done certainly does show how much there is to be saved,” Chieppo added of the T’s finances over the past few years. “There’s not that many new revenue streams — they’ve just been smarter about it.”
But advocate Chris Dempsey of Transportation 4 Massachusetts said ABC had done “a great service” by updating their previous report from 12 years ago, and that it’s time for changes.
“The ABC report confirms what commuters experience every day: a system that is undermaintained and inefficient, and doesn’t get people where they need to go,” Dempsey said.
