Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Bail Out the MBTA, Already

I'm sick of reading stories like this. The MBTA provides a required service for the state of Massachusetts. Without the T, the city of Boston's ability to be a financial leader in the world is over in one breath. If Beacon Hill's worried that cutting corporate loopholes could lose jobs, imagine what all this MBTA crap is doing? People need to stop thinking of the MBTA as a bottom line - and start thinking of it in terms of its importance to society.

Unfortunately, the state burdened it with debt that the T shouldn't be required to pay - debt that's causing the MBTA to do stupid things, like raise rates astronomically in a short time, and now, apparently, do the same thing that's currently caused thousands of people to foreclose on their homes in the Bay State alone (take bad debt). Of course, the MBTA needs better management, but when someone's already in a 6 foot hole, no matter what they do, they're not going to be able to dig out of it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What does the MBTA do for Springfield and other places out here in the west.

Ryan said...

Well, we all live in the Commonwealth. Whether or not people have jobs and the economy is prospering in Greater Boston impacts Springfield too - everywhere from how much it receives in state aid to tourism dollars, etc.

Furthermore, I think it's equally important to support Springfield-centric projects as well. If I knew more about Springfield's issues, I'd probably post more about them. However, I live in and around Boston, so that's the city that I know the most about.

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