WORCESTER, Mass. — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has proposed a 10-year, $8 billion transportation plan including an immediate move to stabilize the finances of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority — using funds from the state’s Fair Share tax on annual incomes over $1 million while requiring no new taxes.
Legislation to enact the plan, part of Healey’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal, will be introduced soon. It would direct $857 million in surplus Fair Share funding from fiscal 2024 toward public transportation, dedicate another $765 million in Fair Share funds from fiscal 2026 to the Commonwealth Transportation Fund through borrowing to yield $5 billion for capital investment bonds, and more than double funds for the MBTA’s operating budget in fiscal 2026 to $687 million.
“We’re going to invest billions of dollars to deliver better roads, less traffic, safer bridges and a transit system that works in every region,” Healey said in a Jan. 14, 2025, press release outlining the plan. “We’ll close the MBTA’s budget gap, improving service and upgrading stations, and we’ll move forward on regional projects like West-East Rail.”
Projects to be funded include $1.4 billion in capital improvements for the MBTA, including new railcars, track work, station accessibility, and station and power system resiliency, and work to advance the Boston-Worcester-Springfield-Pittsfield East-West Rail project [see “Massachusetts legislation includes East-West Rail funding,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 1, 2022].
Also included are $2.5 billion for road and bridge projects.
The wish list will cost a whole lot more than $8 B’s. The General Court (state legislature) is on record as requiring the entire suburban network be electrified. There goes the $8B’s right there, before you get to anything else.
If the Commonwealth drops the electrification thingie, there will be money to be spent to where it is really needed.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news. Prices have gone up and even the “newest” transit lines are now old. I remember when the MBTA Red Line was extended through Quincy in the early 1970’s (later to Braintree). Large parts of the infrastructure have already been replaced. So imagine MBTA’s older subway lines.
As for Intersate highways, God help us. Michigan’s Walter P. Reuther Freeway was the state’s “newest” (the “missing link” opened in 1989). It cost a fortune and took decades to get built. Well guess what, it’s already fallen to ruin. The eastbound lanes will be closed for TWO YEARS for a rebuild. How much will that cost? This is on top of the rebuilding of the pedestrian plazas (years ago) prrovided for the Orthodox Jewish community in Royal Oak Township– massive structures above the highway that started to crumble as soon as they were completed.