The MBTA "Bailout" is 1/4 the road appropriation bill

When roads and bridges need funding, we call it an appropriation. When the MBTA needs state funding, we call it a bailout.

House and Senate lawmakers have approved an MBTA bailout and a second bill to maintain the state's roads and bridges.

Worse is the fact that the roads were "appropriated" $200 million, while the state forced on the MBTA deep service cuts and a 23% fare hike to get a measly $50 million.

If only the MBTA ran on four wheels and carried fewer than four people per vehicle, it would be rolling in the state's dough.

Podcast Central: Marriage Equality, John Walsh, the State Senate and More!

I've been seriously negligent on my LeftAhead promos here on RyansTake, so here's a batch of our last few.

• Interview with Boston City Councilor Steve Murphy. We chatted lots of Boston topics, but also focused in on the proposed Suffolk Downs casino. Here's your chance to see what the President of the Boston City Council thinks about that, including whether or not the entirety of Boston should be able to vote on it, or just East Boston. I'll spare folks my thoughts on that matter, because if you're here, you probably know it already.
• State Democratic Party Chairman John Walsh. We love having John Walsh on and it always makes for a great show. He went over the strategy for this year's elections and I loved his thoughts, toward the end of the show, on the brewing Tierney-Tisei congressional race, which promises to be a doozy. Let's just say Tisei, the 'moderate' got behind the Blunt amendment... 
• Mike and I on the Republican Reality TV Primary, especially Santorum and Romney. Mike's always amazed that our pundit-like shows often do as well as shows with good guests, but I'm not as surprised. We had a lot of fun with this one, and people like fun. Plus, we're totally better pundits than most of the bobble-heads from CNN and Fox News.
• Freedom to Marry Board Member, Rev John Buehrens. Buehrens brings a national perspective as a 9-year member of Freedom to Marry, one of the chief national organizations fighting for marriage equality across the country. He's also a local UU minister, who just so happened to chair the national organization for a while.
  
  He brought even more insight into the state-by-state battles going on in Maine, Washington, Maryland and elsewhere than I expected -- so if these are on your radar, definitely check it out. He also brought in a fascinating understanding of where marriage equality, partisan politics and religion intersect, and how that influences the battle. This show shouldn't be missed.
• State Senate Candidate Mara Dolan. Our show with Dolan today was great. She is clearly a very credible candidate, with a wide policy background, as well. I was very pleased to hear that she understands the fact that the "MBTA issue" is a Beacon Hill issue as much as anything else.
  
  If you're from the 3rd Middlesex District, this is a can't-miss show, and even if not, you should still check it out, because these races have impacts that are far more wide-sweeping than their own borders. 

Getting the conversation rolling on the MBTA

I'm quick to point out that putting corporate welfare up against the MBTA is a means to spark a conversation on Beacon Hill.

People want to save the MBTA and getting rid of the Hollywood Film Tax Credits is one really great way to do it.

However, even reforming the Film Tax Credit could go a long way toward preserving services on the MBTA -- and if a few reps talk over coffee about that crazy petition they were reading about on Blue Mass Group last night and how it may have have a point, that's a victory.

Maybe those reps prove key in getting some reform on the tax credit, with the savings going toward MBTA debt relief.

But to do that, we have to go after the whole enchilada, because that's the only way Beacon Hill will take people seriously.

And, who knows, maybe it'll take off and we'll really get the whole enchilada. So, sign now!

Tom Cruise's Film Tax Credit would have Covered Weekend Services: Please Sign!

Want a reason to be outraged over the service cuts facing the MBTA?

Well, here's one. In the state's wasteful Film Tax Credit law, where the state covers 25% of all a movie's expenses if they film here, we paid for 25% of Tom Cruise's $20 million dollar salary.

That's $5 million dollars the state spent in corporate welfare to Tom Cruise, as if he needs any.

Well, what else could that have paid for? In my post over at Blue Mass Group, I mentioned how all weekend commuter rail services (and any trains after 10pm) would be cut in one of the plans -- all to save a measly $5.7 million dollars.

That's right, the money we paid to Tom Cruise in corporate welfare could have almost entirely, and perhaps fully, paid for weekend services on the commuter rail for the entire year.

I hope you're as outraged as I am.

Please sign -- then email it to all your friends and people you know who ride the T, and ask them to sign, too.

Then Tweet it, Facebook it and post it at your blog.

Tell Beacon Hill to get its priorities straight.

Charlie Baker Doesn't Think the South Coast Matters

I don't know what else to make of this comment:

Charles D. Baker, a Republican who is challenging Patrick in the race for governor this year, called South Coast Rail “yet another example of overspending and overcommitting at a point in time when taxpayers are desperate for the Commonwealth to live within its means.’’

Why is it that when this state wants to invest in economically struggling communities with hundreds of thousands of people, people like Baker think it's "overspending," but when the train's going through Newton, Needham, Beverly Farms and Concord, it's not? This state needs to face it: Charlie Baker just doesn't care about the have-not regions of the Commonwealth.

Having spent years of my life in New Bedford, I can attest to the fact that it's a vibrant, beautiful city with almost a 100,000 people living in it who all just want good, accessible jobs. With tons of things to do there, from the Whaling Museum to the art scene to Battleship Cove in Fall River to some of the most beautiful and picturesque beaches in the entire Commonwealth, there's also the possibility for a whole lot more tourism in the region that a rail could bring. The development of the South Coast rail system would be a huge boon for the region, linking it to both Boston and Providence, and would set the foundation for a new, bright economic future for the region that hasn't been seen since the turn of the last century, when New Bedford was the wealthiest city of its size across the entire country.

We can do this with what in the grand scheme of things is a modest investment, the size of which is made in the wars this country engages in practically every day -- but Charlie Baker wants to make a political sport of this and turn the election into full-scale GOP class warfare, trying to pit the rest of the state against people who are just asking for the pair of boots that could allow them to get some footing.

The thing is, I don't think it works. People want access to good public transportation. There are hundreds of thousands of people who use it from all over Boston, the Metro West, North and South Shores to get in the city for their jobs. We use it to visit the shops of Newburyport and Rockport. We use it to catch the big games. Those of us who don't use public transportation nearly every day probably know someone who does. It's time for Baker to get real and come up with solutions to bring Massachusetts forward, not excuses to send it back to the past.

Aloisi Gone

This is a blessing. Please, please, please, Governor Patrick, get someone who can do this job without writing a gazillion embarrassing emails, who won't piss off everyone who lays eyes on him and who can actually institute some kind of reform. Bonus points for hiring someone who has absolutely, positively no Big Dig baggage. The fate of your next election may just be on the line. Get this decision right.

The T Debacle

What a weird and strange situation. While Aloisi was publicly calling to hold off T fares and secretly pushing for them, Grabauskas was publicly pushing for the fare hike, but privately trying to avoid it as long as possible. Huh? JohnK is right; something's gotta give. Despite what a few of the naysayers and ABD (Anybody but Deval) crowd's been saying, Grabauskas had to go and was a massive failure.

This last relevation he helped get in the paper, that Aloisi was essentially lying, doesn't mask the fact that Grabauskas was lying too -- in a way that bizarrely wouldn't win him any brownie points with the public, arguing on the airwaves and in print for fare hikes now. That's not exactly effectively leadership, to say nothing of all the safety mishaps and service nightmares he's allowed during his tenure.

Goodness knows how to fix any of this. The Patrick administration hasn't been inspiring on this issue, but there's a chance Patrick could buck the trend and put someone competent in charge of the MBTA - may he have the good graces to appoint someone who actually has experiencing running a major public transportation system.

Patrick needs a clean start and slate on transportation. Mr. One-Walking-Disaster-After-the-Other (Aloisi) isn't solving anything, other than becoming the Republican Party's wet dreams. The state's already revamped its transportation system, getting rid of the Pike at least in name. There's the added opportunity to change the face and leadership of the MBTA - hopefully putting someone who will make service the number one priority. Now we just need the clean sweep in the form of Aloisi's resignation, pronto.

Other T notes,

• Scot Lehigh is his typically dense self, missing the broader picture and focusing on the obvious as some sort of tangled web-weaving. Ah, Scot, this isn't a pair of your silk pajamas.
  
• Scot's appalled that the governor wants control of the T. Apparently, he'd rather obscure authorities that answer to just about no one instead of forcing Governors to accept responsibility - along with the credit or blame - of running authorities like the T.
  
• The administration's pushing back the fare hikes, probably at least to next year. Probably not a coincidence, but certainly justified.
• Apparently, there's a new public transportation caucus at the State House. I want to know more about that.
  

Fighting Over Rail Scraps

One of the most significant hurdles in getting off fossil fuels is in creating an infrastructure that would allow us to do so. New England, as a region, has a solid first plan.

Described as the first regionwide passenger rail agenda, the New England system would speed up trains, increase service, and open new commuter lines throughout the region - as well as provide high-speed routes linking New England to Quebec with 110 mile-per-hour trains.

The plan is more like a wish list, one that has a price tag many times more than what the federal government is actually awarding in stimulus grants. It's an ambitious plan, along with ambitious plans from other states, but the fact that it's Massachusetts working with all the other states in the region makes it significant. Heck, it even connects New England to Montreal, should things swing the right way.

Effecting Massachusetts, the plan's priorities will

[Raise] speeds and running more trains between Springfield and New Haven, where the state of Connecticut hopes to introduce commuter rail; raising speeds and expanding the number of trains on the Downeaster; inaugurating passenger rail between Boston and Concord, N.H.; increasing capacity on the Northeast Corridor in Rhode Island... The Vermont plan would return passenger trains to Northampton, Mass., after an absence of several decades.

Several of the proposals are intended to establish connections between train lines and airports in Providence, Hartford, and Manchester, which the federal guidelines say is a plus in deciding grant awards.

Of the plan's six main priorities, at least five of them will be helpful to some Massachusetts citizens. Particularly compelling is the connection from Boston to Concord as well as increasing capacity in Rhode Island, which should speed up the Boston-NY route. I'm not sure where the trains in Northampton would go, but there could be a lot of good with getting even at least some access to that region.

But what's beyond obvious is that the stimulus's spending left for mass transit was pitiful. Of course, that's not news. We had hundreds of billions in ineffective tax cuts, but only left a measly $8 billion for trains. It's sad.

Of course, the article states

The Obama administration has promised that the $8 billion in the stimulus is just a “down payment’’ on a national high-speed rail network.

but I'll believe it when I see it. This generation's most daunting task, the New Deal we need to have, is getting off oil and bringing this country's non-car public infrastructure into the 21st Century... and we're barely doing anything about it. At some point very soon, hopefully within a year, Congress must act on that New Deal and create a huge Mass Transit bill -- one that leaves in the order of hundreds of billions for public spending on mass transit projects. We could spend half a billion dollars and it wouldn't be enough -- but at least that would be an honest start, making this country's economy permanently stronger and more resilient.

Why Should I Take the T?

With the newest hikes, the T's really going to lose the remainder of my business. The T, months ago, begged the legislature for funds. It said that they needed $160 million to avoid major cuts to services and fee hikes. The legislature gave them $160 million. What do they do? Raise fees anyway. Why the hell should I support an organization like that?

A year ago, it was about $3 for a round trip and another $3 to park. Now it's $5 to park and $4-5 dollars round trip. That's almost a 50% increase in a year. Does the T actually want users?

Furthermore, why should the legislature ever trust the MBTA again? It took a big risk to help solve, or at least put off, the MBTA's money problems -- and this was how they were rewarded? It's not in good faith, that's for sure.

This decision by the T will hurt them in the long run. They're less likely to get help from the legislature, and they're going to lose thousands of riders -- and millions of dollars. It's time for a New Charlie in Charge over at the MBTA.

My Momma Always Says

Ya get what ya pay for.

Awesome Show with Representative Benson

We had Jen Benson on LeftAhead yesterday -- and it was a great show. She was exceptionally open, honest, detailed and willing to discuss the most pressing issues of the day. Don't miss it.

Remember, anyone can become a subscriber and download LeftAhead on Itunes, so they can listen to it on their commutes and not have to be affixed to the computer.

DeLeo's Bad Idea

DeLeo's sharpening his sales-tax plan, but that doesn't make it a good one. Let's look at this from several different angles.

Needed revenue.

The MBTA alone has an over-$200 million dollar hole to climb out of. It can't cut its way out of that, or force it on T users. It can't be blamed for that debt, either: the very-large bulk of it occurred because the state forced the T to pay for aspects surrounding the Big Dig, instead of paying up using the general fund or an increase to the gas tax. Governor Patrick's gas tax plan solved this problem & added money desperately needed for our transportation system, one of the oldest and most worn out in the entire country. DeLeo's plan doesn't even seek to solve the problems, it only seeks to throw just enough money at the problems so DeLeo can throw the towel in and wash his hands of it. It's neither honest nor good policy.

Not a good tax.

Simply put, the sales tax is one of the least progressive taxes out there. It is far more painful to the middle and working classes than the wealthy. Why? Middle and working class people still need to buy many of the same sort of things. This means they're paying the same taxes for those things as anyone else, even those who make magnitudes more.

On top of that, in this poor economy why add a tax that hits those who are unemployed just as heavily as it does the employed? If you're unemployed, at least you're not getting hit off the head with income taxes. Why force the unemployed to pay more? And how does this help people want to go out and buy things -- ultimately necessary to end the recession?

Other, better options.

For starters, this doesn't generate the revenue we need as a state. We need more funds for public transportation and infrastructure. If DeLeo wants to go beyond increasing the gas tax and try to raise revenue to help offset the general fund's deficit, then maybe this is a good way to do it. But this shouldn't be seen as a be-all fix for our state. Moreover, why not just increase income taxes by about .1% - which would generate about the same level of funds? At least that way, it's not quite such a regressive tax. It's not going to hit those who are un or underemployed the hardest. And it allows those who earn more to pay more, as is customary throughout the developed world.

Some sales taxes can make decent policy -- roads are costly and there's few better ways to fund it than through the gas tax, which is a type of sales tax. Gas taxes also help people use public transit and nudge people to drive less, both things needed to help reduce Global Warming emissions. Furthermore, discretionary spending, at a modest rate, should be fair game for tax policy, as people don't need to spend their money on those things.

But these aren't things DeLeo's trying to do. There are better options for the state to take than DeLeo's plan -- both in terms of increasing revenue and lessening the impact on this state's most vulnerable. If DeLeo's going to be a Speaker for the people of this state who need it the most, he needs to get off his aversion to the gas and income tax and start acting like an adult. We need real solutions, not lame-o conservative tax policy.

The MBTA's Problem is State-Forced Debt

Stomv kicks ass, as usual.

The question is: how do we get the MBTA's expenses under control? Answer:

Pay down the debt. The T is carrying huge debt loads, and it's not really because of MBTA managers mismanaging. The switch to forward funding meant that the lege made capital decisions for the T and then left them holding the bag. The Big Dig made commitments for the T in order to get better infrastructure for autos, and then left the T holding the bag. MBTA FY 2009 debt services total $368 million, $246 of which is interest payments.

That's right, the total deficit is about $100 million less than the T's interest payments, much of which is paid on loans that MBTA management didn't want to take on, but the legislature forced on them.

So, if we paid down half the debt that we forced on the T because of the Big Dig, the MBTA would suddenly not only not be in trouble, but could even expand service. Imagine a subway that didn't shut down at midnight on a Saturday! Well, citizens of Massachusetts, that's how to do it.

$150-200 million is a lot of money, but perhaps only .1-2% of all of our state's income taxes. If the state legislature had the courage to raise that amount to be applied directly to the MBTA's debt service, I think the people of this state would be more than willing to pay it to protect the T. We could make sure that some of that money goes toward solving some debt issues with other public transportation systems in other parts of the state, too, just to be fair. This seems like a no brainer.

The Pike and Swaptions

This is some seriously good stuff.

If people want to understand what's behind the Pike's apparent collapse and what the state should do and can do from here, that's the link to click and read.

John Walsh at Tonight's Town Dem Meeting

Dem Party Chairman John Walsh made a visit to tonight's Town Dem meeting in Swampscott. He came chiefly to talk about transportation, an issue that's critical and, obviously, something the Governor is pushing. It was a pretty crowded room, so he had a pretty good sized audience. We usually get 30-40 people at our quarterly meetings - a few more actually showed up tonight.

His point was a great one. When this state was going through the Big Dig and how to fund it, who was over in the Corner Office? Walsh went back to 1998, when Paul Celluci was in charge, and talked about how Celluci pushed on the Pike, with Republican-appointed boards, a $1.9 billion bond loan the state needed to finish paying for the Big Dig. The Pike was then more than solvent and was easy pickings for Celluci. The bond was a 40 year bond -- the first 10 years of which the State had to pay nothing. The state also borrowed, under that leadership, on employee salaries -- so now the Pike is paying $130 million a year to fund the last 15 years' salaries.

It was a broken model by a group of Republican leaders who loved Government services, but refused to actually pay for them. Now, when the bill is due, Democrats are forced to pay for it. Governor Patrick wants to do it through a gas tax, an entirely reasonable way of doing it, which will cost the average citizen around $100 a year. That's the difference between Republicans and Democats: Democrats are the adults who clean up the mess, who understand values have costs and must actually be paid -- and that they make the state a far better and more prosperous (not to mention profitable) place.

No Gas Tax Increase = Western Mass Loses

A lot of the opposition to the gas tax is coming from people outside the Greater Boston area, perhaps most vocally by folks in Western Mass. Beyond mentioning the fact that construction projects cost more in Western Mass and the population centers of Metro Boston contribute a great deal toward paying for those proportionately-higher expenses, let's pretend that Western Mass has a point. What happens if we don't raise the gas tax to increase revenue for construction projects?

Drivers pay well more than they would have for the gas tax.

But what about those who never pay a toll or transit fare? They, too, are better off financially with a higher gas tax. Due in no small measure to inadequate funding, the Massachusetts transportation system is so poorly maintained and badly congested that Massachusetts motorists spend an estimated $718 million each year on car repairs attributable to bad roads. This amounts to nearly $300 per household or roughly three times the proposed gas tax increase. One blown-out tire or bent wheel can cost a lot more to fix than several years of a higher gas tax.

Moreover, because so much of the construction projects we do pay for comes from 20-year bonds, we end up paying double the actual costs in the end. If we paid for more of our necessary projects with cash on hand - and had more cash on hand to spend - we'd save a great deal in the long run.

Perhaps most insidious is the cost of Massachusetts's longstanding reliance on debt to pay for basic road operations and maintenance. About half of the Massachusetts Highway Department's budget is currently funded by issuing 20-year bonds. That means Massachusetts taxpayers are not only paying interest for 20 years on the costs of construction, but often on the salaries and supplies needed to pick up litter and mow grass in medians. Twenty years of interest payments more than doubles those highway maintenance costs. Without more gas tax revenues, Massachusetts will continue to issue bonds to pay for maintenance on state highways and this will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in added debt service costs - which will, of course, come from income or sales taxes or other fees.

Non-metro residents are beyond frustrating. They've become the party of no, for no good reason. Instead of trying to kill the gas tax, they should own the issue and try to advocate for their own interests. If they're not satisfied that there's enough money going their way, why not demand the gas tax become 5 cents bigger, with that 5 cents going directly toward their part of the state? Working with - instead of against - the NS and Metro West is a far more powerful position to bargain from. There's going to be a gas tax hike - the only question is how much of that will go to non Metro Boston. By being the party of no, non Metro legislators are making sure that as little as possible ends up going their way. If I were a constituent in Western Mass and was listening to my legislator knee-jerking against the gas tax, I'd go looking for a new state legislator.

Gov's Transportation Reform Plans Tomorrow

From his daily update:

Transportation Reform—Governor Patrick plans to publicly lay out his vision for transportation reform tomorrow. The Governor has said any proposals for new revenue must be accompanied by a "radical simplification of our transportation bureaucracy and a more focused and aligned way to develop and implement transportation strategy."

We shall see.

Super Train Stim Spending: Boston to Montreal?

Open Left lists the high-speed rail projects most likely to be funded with stimulus spending - and while Boston to Montreal (and Portland) were on the list, it wasn't very high up (not that we should be greedy: Boston-NYC-DC is #1 on the list).

That said, I still found the whole concept of the project interesting. Would I drive or fly to Montreal? Probably not. But I'd consider going there for a long weekend trip if there were a competitively-priced train. I bet a lot of Montreal residents would think of coming to Boston too.

I decided to check out the website for the plan, just finishing the detailed summary (pdf file) of the Phase 1 study. It predicted over 680,000 users annually starting out, more than 220,000 of which would go the full route. It's important to note I only read about the Boston-Montreal line, but the overarching plan would also link Boston to Portland. Furthermore, given the commute potential, a little publicity and future smart growth, it's easy to foresee a scenenario where many more than 680,000 people use the system. Linking Boston to places such as Lowell, Nashua, Manchester and Concord has a lot of potential.

I would love to see this take place, more to extend commuter options and public transit within Metro Boston than any other reason. I'm sure the people of NH and Vermont would feel similarly about their localities. Plus, it'd be nice to go visit Montreal using the train - my friends have raved about the city, so I'd probably go there if there were better travel options available.

Update: A few quick facts. The train would travel at an average speed of 110 mph. That's relatively slow compared to some other planned supertrains, but according to the report, it's the most feasible option. The safety requirements for trains that travel in excess of 150 mph are such that it would require significantly more investment to make this plan feasible.

Furthermore, to get passed the 150 mark, the added cost to the project would mean far more expensive fares for users - which was actually projected to reduce ridership. At 110mph, the costs for users would be around 20 cents/mile, which amounts to $66 each way. That seems low, but even if it's a hundred or a little more, that's much better than spending the $600+ for roundtrip airfare. Heck, it would even give Greyhound, charging $180 roundtrip ($92 if it's booked early) a run for its money, while saving users 2-3 hours each way on the 8 hour bus trip.

Raise Taxes

Despite whatever the Governor and Speaker think, we aren't going to and can't cut ourselves out of this budget mess. We're only going to need to cut more and more and more. Where does it end?

A small increase to the state's income tax, say .3%, would not only be unnoticeable to the average taxpayer over the course of an entire year, but would end this state's fiscal crisis. Our tax burden, as a state, is below the national average in a state that is one of the most expensive places to live in. Either we have to become a crappy state, which will make us poorer in the long run, or we have to suck it up and contribute just a little more to our state's finances.

There's around 6.4 million people living in this state and the average taxpayer earns around $42k. Raising taxes by .3% would bring in about $900 million dollars. That, alone, would nearly solve our budget gap for this year and maybe the next. Couple that with reducing the cost of health care and not only would our structural deficit finally end, but we could start to think about working on all the projects we've been neglecting in this state for decades - the kind of economic stimulus that could not only help in a desperate economy, but help the parts of the state that never felt the boom years to begin with.

[Note - I missed a decimal point in my original math. It is now fixed. I made some changes to the blog to account for a smaller pool of funds. But my general point remains: we can't just cut ourselves out of this mess - it's going to take a varied approach, finding funding efficiencies, like in health care or regionalization, as well as raising revenue.]

Tomorrow's Podcast: Bikes in Boston

Mike, Lynne and I are on with Nicole Freedman, Director of Boston Bikes, tomorrow at 2:30 to talk about biking in Boston and how to improve it, as well as the city's future plans. Biking to work and around town is great for numerous reasons - almost zero carbon footprint, lessens traffic and it's great exercise. Looks to be an interesting show.

Listen live at 2:30 or go to LeftAhead.com anytime afterward.