Following the unveiling of Governor Maura Healey’s new $8 billion transportation spending plan, which relies heavily on borrowing and surtax revenues to address the MBTA’s chronic mismanagement while burdening taxpayers with increased financial liabilities, the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance announced that it strongly opposes the plan.
“This proposal is a textbook example of fiscal irresponsibility. Rather than tackling the deep-rooted inefficiencies and mismanagement plaguing the MBTA, Governor Healey is opting to throw more taxpayer dollars at the problem, all while leveraging Massachusetts’ financial future with unsustainable borrowing," stated Paul Diego Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.
The plan diverts billions from the voter-approved surtax on high-income earners to fund MBTA basic operating costs and workforce expansions. While these initiatives may sound beneficial, the plan fails to address the root causes of the agency’s inefficiencies and financial instability.
“Massachusetts taxpayers, already burdened by one of the nation’s highest costs of living and debts per capita, should not be forced to bail out an agency notorious for its waste and lack of accountability. Putting that much money into the system without an analysis of cost per ride is simply madness. This plan prioritizes political optics and puts the state’s fiscal health at risk,” noted Craney.
The proposal relies on significantly increasing state borrowing, raising alarms about long-term impacts on Massachusetts’ financial health. By leveraging surtax revenues to unlock additional borrowing capacity, the administration is saddling future generations with unnecessary debt for projects that lack transparency, oversight and an emphasis on cost per ride.
“Real reform starts with making the MBTA more efficient, transparent, and accountable to the taxpayers who fund it,” Craney emphasized. “Governor Healey’s plan does none of this. It’s time for lawmakers to reject this reckless bailout and demand fiscal accountability in transportation funding.”
“The plan allocates just $1.5 billion over five years in Chapter 90 money to improve roads in local cities and towns. To put it in perspective, the Commonwealth spent over a billion dollars last year alone just on hotels for illegal immigrants and inadmissible migrants that are flocking to the state due to the unreformed right to shelter law. The millionaire’s tax passed very narrowly and one of its major promises was improving roads—now we see the lion's share of that revenue being dumped into the broken MBTA meat grinder,” noted Craney.
“Governor Healey needs to go back to the drawing board and produce a fiscally responsible plan that benefits all the people of the Commonwealth, not just the politically connected, perpetually broken MBTA system,” closed Craney.