Transportation secretaries past and current disagreed Tuesday on a new board intended to rein in costs at the MBTA.
An MBTA panel discussion entitled "Fix It" at Suffolk University Tuesday reviewed the fundamental fiscal problems with the aging transit system. This, after a winter of major delays and train service shut-downs.
"It is the fundamental problem of the MBTA, which is expenses grow faster than revenues," said Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack. "They do it all the time and quite frankly the incentive the T has to change that is nonexistent."
She says an MBTA "fiscal control" board would be able to control arbitrated contracts with unions and assure lawmakers that the MBTA budget has been thoroughly reviewed.
"Somehow we have decided that the MBTA is the one agency in state government that won’t be held accountable for keeping the growth in its expenses below the rate of growth in its revenues," Pollack said.
Pollack questioned why critics are "afraid" of the control board proposed in Gov. Charlie Baker's transportation reform bill.
One such critic, former Transportation Secretary Jim Aloisi, attended the meeting and says the proposed board would reduce accountability and add "another layer of bureaucracy."
