Politics
“This historic transportation proposal represents smart, forward-thinking fiscal management, and it will have an impact on people in all regions of our state.”
Gov. Maura Healey announced a plan Tuesday to “immediately stabilize” the finances of the beleaguered MBTA by funneling billions of dollars in investments into the agency and other transportation upgrades.
Healey’s plan, which would see $8 billion spent over the next 10 years, does not include tax increases. Instead, her office said the plan will maximize funds generated through the state’s Fair Share Amendment, also known as the “millionaire’s tax,” through borrowing and other existing resources.
Immediately under the plan, Healey’s administration will direct $857 million in surplus revenue raised through the Fair Share Amendment in 2024 to public transportation.
“This historic transportation proposal represents smart, forward-thinking fiscal management, and it will have an impact on people in all regions of our state,” Healey said in a statement. “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. 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. And we’ll do this all without raising taxes.”
The announcement comes just days before Healey is slated to deliver her second State of the Commonwealth Address. The plan was released as the state’s Transportation Funding Task Force delivered a final report to the governor.
Healey said insights from the task force on how to stabilize and enhance transportation in the state, while planning for the future, helped shape her administration’s proposal and said many of the group’s recommendations are being put into action.
In a statement on Tuesday, MBTA General Manager and CEO Phillip Eng praised the proposal.
“This solution-oriented approach is leading to a historic investment and will provide critical support to the MBTA, including our operating capacity, improving service, and ensuring a more sustainable, reliable transit system for all riders,” he said.
The new transportation plan will be filed as legislation in the coming weeks as part of Healey’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal and an accompanying supplemental budget, according to the governor’s office. Healey will also file a multiple-year Chapter 90 bill later in the year, which her administration said would grow the funding directed to municipalities for local roads and sidewalks to $300 million per year for five years.
“The combined impact of the Governor’s House 1 budget proposal for FY26 and the supplemental budget to spend surplus Fair Share revenue from FY24 will achieve a 50 percent-50 percent split between Fair Share resources dedicated to transportation and education since enacted of the voter-approved surtax,” Healey’s office said. “This was one of the key recommendations included in the Transportation Funding Task Force report.”
In addition to doubling the support for the MBTA’s operating budget and immediately closing the agency’s budget shortfall, Healey’s proposal would see $1.4 billion invested into upgrades to MBTA infrastructure like new commuter rail coaches and subway cars, $2.5 billion put into road and bridge repairs across the state, closure of the funding gap for the Allston I-90 project, and support for projects advancing the West-East rail proposal.
Worcester City Manager Eric Batista is among the officials already expressing support for the governor’s proposal.
“Substantial investment in public transportation is critical for growing communities like Worcester,” he said in a statement. “These funds will directly impact and enhance the life of residents who use the Commuter Rail to connect to Boston and beyond, ride the Worcester Regional Transportation Authority to conduct daily activities, and traverse our local roads to move around the city safely and efficiently.”
Despite the immediate praise for the proposal from some, Reggie Ramos, executive director of the statewide coalition Transportation for Massachusetts, had a measured response to the plan.
“We look forward to reviewing the Governor’s funding plan in detail,” she said. “In doing so, we will first look to ensure it meets the scale of the problem, which is massive and must not be solved by an overreliance on bonding. We also must ensure equity, both in the plan’s reach and funding mechanisms.
“Devoting meaningfully more Fair Share revenues to transportation is a good first step toward these criteria,” she added. “Swift action is needed to pull the MBTA out of a deficit that otherwise will lead to devastating consequences for riders and communities.”
In unveiling her plan on Tuesday, Healey emphasized that her administration is focused on transportation because it is part of the everyday experience of “just about everybody in the state” and she expressed hope that her proposal would improve the quality of life for residents across the state.
“The work is not done,” she said. “But if we didn’t deal with stabilization, if we didn’t deal with the foundation, which has been crumbling for decades, we’re not going to get a chance to build anything meaningful. You know that. You can’t build a house without a foundation or if its a lousy foundation the whole damn thing is going to fall apart, no matter how pretty it looks on the outside. So we’ve done that today.”
Boston.com Today
Sign up to receive the latest headlines in your inbox each morning.
