BOSTON — Boston-area government leaders are calling for a 15-cent increase in Massachusetts’ gas tax to help fund transit and roadway projects.
The State House News Service reports that Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, along with members of the Metropolitan Mayors Coalition, the North Shore Coalition, and the Commuter Rail Communities Coalition, have called on Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and the state legislature to approve “significant new revenue” for transportation funding. The proposed 15-cent addition to the gas tax, currently 24 cents per gallon, would bring in an estimated $450 million per year.
“We need to take the essential next steps to improve mobility in our city and our state,” Walsh said in a statement, “and increasing revenue for critical infrastructure is needed to ensure our current and future residents are able to move around the region in an equitable, affordable and reliable manner.”
The groups also called for additional highway tolls and higher fees on ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, among other concepts.
The area’s transit provider, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, has voted for a major upgrade of its commuter rail system, including electrification of at least three lines, but currently has no funding plans for the project. [See “MBTA board votes for electrification of some commuter rail lines,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 5, 2019.]
Like other taxes in MA supposedly earmarked for specific purposes, this will most likely end up in the general fund financing other things.
Why not find a way to collect funds from hybrid and EV owners who use the highways and pay (next to) nothing for their upkeep?
More insanity in MA…
Put a tax on transit fares. Let those who use the service pay for it. The overtaxed automobile users have had enough.
Gas here in Mass is still 20 to35 cents a gallon less than CT or NY.
Based on recent history, I think raising the gas tax won’t be popular with Mass voters. Wikipedia excerpt: “The Massachusetts Automatic Gas Tax Increase Repeal Initiative, Question 1 was on the November 4, 2014 statewide ballot. Approved by voters, the measure repeals a 2013 law that would automatically adjust gas taxes according to inflation, allowing for automatic annual increases in the state’s gas tax….The question passed with 53% of voters in favor.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Automatic_Gas_Tax_Increase_Repeal_Initiative
In addition to a gas tax there could be funding from an increase in either property taxes or sales taxes. But both Mike and Charles are correct if we want services like mass public transit the funds have to come from somewhere.
I didn’t see any mention of fees on electric & hybrid cars. Since they pay little or no gas tax, the registration fee on those cars need to be raised about $165 a year. (Based on a veh traveling 15,000 per year getting 35 mpg paying 39 cents tax per gallon.)
MIKE F. is right. Most people who post on this forum know that there’s no source of funding for mass transit other than hitting up auto and truck drivers. It ain’t pretty, it ain’t nice, it ain’t popular, but it’s what has to happen.
There is no solution to Boston-area transportation other than mass transit. On our September trip back home to suburban Norfolk County I drove on the same roads as in driver’s ed 57 years ago. The roads aren’t going to get any better. All the road money went into Boston’s Big Dig and Ted Williams Tunnel. There won’t be any more such projects. The only way forward is MBTA. Love it or hate it or deny it, MIKE F. is correct.
CHRIS T. is correct in part. $450 million won’t go very far but $450 million each year, every year, is what needs to be.
From our side of the aisle, something that needs to happen is to forget about the North Station – South Station Connector. Just drop the issue. NARP/ RPA’s advocacy of that bottomless pit of a project is why I dropped my 50-year long membership. The Connector would be very nice to have at about one percent of what it would cost.
So the solution is to do nothing? If everyone thought that, nothing would ever get done.
$450 million per year. What’s the point? That won’t pay for studies and consulting fees nowadays on a new bridge much less electrification of a railway.