Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Reforming the MBTA
Responding to the systemic problems of the MBTA highlighted by system-wide
failures that were exposed by our last winter, I worked during the Senate debate of the Fiscal Year 2016 State
Budget to develop and sponsor an amendment with my colleagues in the Republican
Caucus to create a Fiscal Management Control Board to begin the process of
productive reform. Importantly, we worked to reach a bipartisan compromise with
Senate Transportation Chair Thomas McGee (D- Lynn) and Governor Charlie Baker
that was approved unanimously by the Senate, prevailed in the budget process,
and became law. By clicking the links you can read the language of our
amendment and its final version, Section 199, of the
state budget.
Yesterday that Fiscal Management Control Board proved how important it is to
address issues in mass transportation by issuing its first report on many
dimensions of the MBTA. It
contains information critical to understanding the situation we face, and
points in the direction of necessary actions to confront problems, capture
savings and efficiencies, and restoring reliability and fiscal soundness to a
system that so many riders and our economy and quality of life depend on. You
can read the entire report by clicking
this link. or the image below.