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.
I wonder how many folks with incomes (?) over $1M actually pay the state’s “Fair Share” tax? Is it really going to be a reliable funding source to pay the projected $8B cost over the next ten years? (with no “new taxes” – really?)
(Inquiring minds want to know ……)
It’s not called “Taxachusetts” for nothing.
Maybe you should use The Googles and find out. I’ll bet it will tell you.
And Mass. may have high taxes, but it also has some of the best schools in the country.
I also think it’s hilarious that some of you think you’re experts on places you have never lived.
Mike Friedman:
I wasn’t claiming to be “an expert” on the state of Massachusetts (where no I’ve never lived, but have visited). I was merely questioning the fiscal reality and likelihood that those subject to the “Fair Share Tax” (on incomes greater than $1M) will actually pay their “fair share” of taxes to fund this transit finance proposal.
There appears to be a belief among ‘Progressive’ politicians that if the “Rich” merely pay their “Fair Share” of taxes (which of course, the progressive politicians never say what that “Fair Share” is or should be), then all of the politicians’ wish lists and societal needs will be taken care of.
There are many examples to cite to show that this notion is a delusion and doesn’t work out as these politicians say it will.
Of course, we have a just-departed president whose son didn’t pay his “fair share” of taxes (or any at all?) on millions of dollars of corrupt, ill-begotten income and was subsequently “Pardoned” by his father for any and all possible crimes for the past ten+ years.
This off-stated platitude of “the rich” paying their “fair-share” of taxes is a very worn, tired, and intellectually bankrupt claim.
Nuff’ Said …..
“We’re going to invest billions of dollars to deliver better roads, less traffic . . .”
Massachusetts has gone over the edge by greatly reducing auto travel lanes by adding lots of bus and bike lanes. Some of these on major arteries reducing three lanes to two and two lanes to one. They have done a lot to create traffic congestion and MORE traffic.
The bus lanes are great for public transportation. The bike lanes in many areas lightly used. But the bottom line is our old narrow roads simply can’t provide what they are trying to do.
This “less traffic” quote is a joke.
Massachusetts is like England — what Massachachusetts calls a “state highway” is what we here in Wisconsin would call a substandard local street.
It goes beond that — the lack of any update, for a lifetime. I drove or walked about ten miles in Sharon (my home town in the 1950’s and 1960’s) before I found a street that had changed an inch since I was a kid.
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.