MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS believe the Bay State should have a back-up plan in case the Trump administration pulls back from funding projects like the bridges to Cape Cod and an overhaul of the section of the I-90 turnpike in Boston’s Allston neighborhood, according to a new poll.
A MassINC Polling Group survey of 702 residents found that 59 percent said the state should have a plan to pay for transportation improvements without billions of dollars in federal funding. Twenty-one percent said the state can rely on federal funding, and 20 percent said they don’t know or refused to answer the question.
The survey indicated residents remain in a fiscally conservative mood, but they are open to studying other ways to pay for transportation upgrades and improvements, such as congestion pricing. The policy was recently implemented in New York City, though the Trump administration has demanded officials abandon the proposal.
The survey was conducted online between February 21-25, and has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points. MassINC Polling Group, which is partly owned by MassINC, the publisher of CommonWealth Beacon, pulled together the survey for the advocacy group Transportation for Massachusetts, with the Barr Foundation as the poll’s sponsor.
“The reality is we can’t take for granted that the federal dollars we’ve relied on will always be there,” Reggie Ramos, executive director of Transportation for Massachusetts, said in a statement.
“This drumbeat is going to come from many quarters but in transportation it’s going to become a pressing issue,” added Richard Parr, senior research director at the polling outfit.
The poll found support for Gov. Maura Healey’s proposal to spend $8 billion over 10 years on roads, bridges and public transportation, such as the MBTA. The money would come from using half of revenues raised by the “millionaires tax” approved by voters in 2022. The other half would go towards education-related accounts, which have in the last year received more millionaires tax money than transportation.
Fifty-six percent said Healey’s proposal is “about right” in meeting the state’s transportation needs, while 17 percent said it doesn’t go far enough. Eighteen percent said they didn’t know or refused to answer, while 9 percent said it “goes too far.”
The plan doesn’t involve new taxes due to its focus on the existing millionaires tax, which applies a 4 percent surtax on income exceeding $1 million. Under the plan, state officials would funnel the revenue to transportation accounts, and borrow against it, allowing for more capital spending. “That seems like a pretty good deal to them,” Parr said.
Asked whether the state can fix its transportation that way, 34 percent said there will be a need to raise other taxes and 23 percent Massachusetts already spends enough on transportation. Nineteen percent said the state transportation system can be fixed just by taking on more debt, while 24 percent said they didn’t know or refused to answer the question.
Residents found the governor’s plan to be “reasonable,” Parr said. “When you layer in the [potential drop in federal funding] part, you get people thinking, ‘Well, maybe we need to do something more there.’”
Forty-eight percent said that congestion pricing should be studied, while 35 percent opposed the idea. The numbers were largely unchanged from when MassINC Polling Group asked a similar question in June 2024.
Seeking to reduce traffic and pollution while raising money for transit, New York City officials earlier this year implemented a congestion pricing plan charging drivers $9 each time they drive into a section of Manhattan.
The policy, which has brought in $100 million in two months while lessening gridlock, is now at the center of a legal battle between New York and the Trump administration, which has ordered it to be abandoned. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has continued to support the congestion pricing, and the state has filed a lawsuit in February to block the federal attempts to dismantle the program.
The MassINC Polling Group survey also asked whether residents would support or oppose phasing out the gas tax and replacing it with a mileage-based fee. If more people buy electric cars, gas tax revenue is expected to drop.
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