It’s not just an MBTA problem. A report this month looking statewide warns: “The current state of transportation is unsustainable.”
The 53-page report doesn’t sugarcoat anything. It starts on a depressing note – “Today, people in Massachusetts experience some of the worst traffic congestion in the country” – and gets worse: “More than half of the state’s population live in communities served by the commonwealth’s 15 regional transit authorities. However, those RTAs are so underfunded that some communities do not have service in the evenings …
“Only recently did all agencies expand to offer service seven days a week.”
That’s one of the few positive notes in “Funding Our Future: A Roadmap for Equitable and Sustainable Transportation Action in Massachusetts,” a publication of the Transit Is Essential coalition. Thoroughly reported and backed by more than 40 organizations spanning Transit Matters, Walk Massachusetts and Livable Streets to the Conservation Law Foundation, Boston Center for Independent Living and MassBike, the overall assessment is clear: “The current state of transportation is unsustainable for our climate and public health, our economy and ultimately for the people of Massachusetts.”
There’s not much hopeful Bay State transit news of late beyond some recent sunshine sown by Phillip Eng, general manager and chief executive of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Eng’s prioritizing rail work to reduce the number of slow zones has been widely applauded, but larger funding nightmares loom. The coalition report cites Christian MilNeil of StreetsBlog Mass in emphasizing the extent of the imminent problem: “If the Legislature does not take action early in 2025, the MBTA will be facing a roughly $700 million operating deficit in FY26.”
But while a devastating historical assessment published by the MBTA advisory board in November – “Always Broke: Governing and funding public transportation in and around Boston 1918–2024” – details how we got to this point and the wrong turns taken by all parties, from officials to management, the Transit Is Essential piece looks to funding our future:
“Massachusetts needs a new transportation funding model that provides ample and sustained revenue that is equitably sourced and distributed, that can meet the needs of our transportation systems today and appropriately resource the transportation system we need for tomorrow.
“The good news is that viable and fair solutions are out there. States across the U.S. have already passed comprehensive transportation funding packages that we can learn from. Grassroots, civic and business leaders have already offered the Legislature several potential funding ideas. The problem may be large, but we have the tools to solve the problem.”
Goals of the report
This report was a big haul, and it shows, with specific data as well as relevant anecdotes sprinkled throughout. Public transportation advocates in particular often discuss how problematic it can be when lawmakers and others who have a direct impact on policy don’t experience bad transit themselves. Nothing can compare to experiencing transit problems firsthand; this presentation showcases the problems for anyone who hasn’t lived through them in ways state and federal evaluations, while important, rarely manage.
To get that personal touch, Transportation for Massachusetts visited communities statewide as wells as creating “a policy council with representation from various social justice areas, launching two learning series on transportation and traveling through different modes of transportation with community members all over the state,” all in an effort to “democratize the way we come up with our policy priorities.”
Importantly, the group is not citing only Greater Boston problems. The authors of Funding Our Future want to “Make sure that transit works for everyone, regardless of where they live.”
“Pitting people who live outside of the MBTA region against those who live in Metro Boston creates false tradeoffs. Every transit authority in Massachusetts is underfunded, and thousands of people, regardless of where they live, need better transit options,” the report says.
Examples from other systems
Massachusetts needs to shed baggage to move forward, the authors argue.
For example, “misunderstanding about how roads, bridges and transit are currently funded, assumptions about how large (or small) certain revenue streams are and assumptions about how money is or isn’t spent has often led to an over-focus on less impactful funding options that don’t meet our long-term needs.”
The report notes that the 2022 “Fair Share” amendment to the state Constitution, which created a 4 percent surtax on personal income over $1 million, isn’t saving the day, but is an “important part of the commonwealth’s transportation funding future” and “delivered on its promise” by raising $2.2 billion in the 2024 fiscal year. Recognizing that there “is not a single revenue source or strategy that on its own will fill budget gaps and make our transportation systems whole,” the coalition identified examples from other states that, if put in place in Massachusetts, could help begin to reduce deficits. For example, Minnesota’s 2023 Transportation law includes $7.8 billion in revenue for 2024-2026, $3.7 billion of which is from new sources: a 50-cent delivery fee on retail deliveries over $100 (exempting food, medicine and other nontaxable items); increased fees for automobile sales and car registrations; and a 0.75 percent metro-area sales tax increase.
New York, meanwhile, is investing $12 billion in statewide transportation projects “through a mix of fees and taxes. The package includes raising the payroll mobility tax to raise an additional $1.1 billion annually.” Colorado’s most recent transportation funding package invests $5.4 billion, with $3.8 billion in new revenue for 10 years from 2022-3032 that includes a 27-cent delivery fee for most items subject to sales tax.
“Equitable and sustainable” funding
The report lays out four major recommendations toward building a transportation revenue package that will “have an equitable financial impact on people in Massachusetts”; “provide stable short-term and long-term revenue options”; and “help the state meet its mobility, climate and public health goals.”
The first is to focus on “equitable and sustainable” revenue options first, including new “corporate minimum tax tiers” and ending “special exemptions, deductions or credits that reduce the value of taxes on personal income or corporate profits.”
Second is ensuring low- and moderate-income people are not overburdened with paying for the transportation system, and the third is to include policies and revenue options that “allow for local and regional self determination,” noting that some communities have more ability to raise resources.
Fourth, the coalition recommends implementing more “smart policies” toward sustainable transportation that could involve plans “to reduce reliance on the gas tax and transit fares by 2050 and 2030” and provide resources to electrify transit statewide.
“Now is the time to act on equitable and sustainable solutions to Massachusetts’ transportation funding challenges. We urge policymakers to recommit to this work, using a framework informed by equity best practices, lessons from other states, and, most importantly, the voices of people in communities around the commonwealth,” the report concludes.
A version of this story appeared originally on HorizonMass.