A panel appointed by Gov. Maura Healey to come up with solutions to the state’s transportation funding problems is set to release its recommendations in the coming days.
The Transportation Funding Task Force held its final meeting with Healey and Lt. Gov Kim Driscoll on Tuesday. Members are currently reviewing a 100-plus page final draft of their recommendations and are expected to submit final edits to the document by the end of the day.
The long-awaited report will call for Massachusetts to use a greater portion of the state’s millionaire’s tax to both provide immediate relief to the MBTA and fund new transportation infrastructure projects in the years ahead, a member of the task force told GBH News.
The report will not call for the state to institute any new user-based sources of revenue for transportation, such as congestion pricing or increased tolls, the task force member said. Rather, it will likely ask the governor to conduct an analysis of tolls and fees in other states — including New York, which launched congestion pricing this week — to see what could help Massachusetts stabilize its transportation budget in the coming years.
The recommendations will likely disappoint advocates who have called for a broader solution to the state’s transportation funding woes that goes beyond the state’s surtax on annual incomes over $1 million, also known as the Fair Share Amendment, which is earmarked for education and transportation.
“Relying on Fair Share will not nearly be enough,” Transportation for Massachusetts Executive Reggie Ramos said after the release of a December report calling for state leaders to consider new long-term revenue sources, including increased corporate taxes and congestion pricing. Ramos said the millionaire’s tax will be helpful for preventing an immediate crisis at the MBTA, which is facing a more than $800 million budget deficit, but alternative revenue streams will be needed to provide adequate public transportation in the coming year.
But according to Kate Dineen, president and CEO of A Better City and a member of the Transportation Funding Task Force, the panel’s draft report isn’t just a short-term fix.
“I’m confident that the overall approach that you’ll see in this final report is impactful, fiscally responsible and, most importantly, actionable,” she told GBH News.
The recommendations, Dineen said, will call for the state to use at least 50% of the revenue generated by the Fair Share Amendment for transportation. Tax collections from the surtax have been stronger than the state initially anticipated, though a greater portion of the revenue so far has gone toward education.
Dineen said she’s hopeful that the governor and Legislature will take immediate action based on the report’s recommendations, and that the ramped up use of Fair Share funds would mark an historic investment in transportation infrastructure that goes beyond the fiscal cliff at the MBTA.
During an appearance on GBH’s Boston Public Radio on Tuesday, ahead of the Transportation Funding Task Force’s final meeting, and said that she is looking forward to the final recommendations.
Healey did not indicate whether she’s receptive to the idea of congestion pricing, which charges tolls based on demand, but said that she would need to talk to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul about how their new program is working.
Healey first formed the 31-member panel of public and private sector experts last January through an executive order that required the task force to send a written report to her desk by Dec. 31. The panel missed that deadline, saying members needed more time to finalize its contents.
