2009 Massachusetts Fiscal Budget and the MBTA

My company is closed today because of Martin Luther King Day. So I do not have a commuter rail update to share.

However, I thought a post regarding the 2009 Fiscal Budget for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts made this morning the Massachusetts Liberal blog was worth sharing.

In "Massachusetts Liberal: T is for Truth" some excellent points about the MBTA in relationship to the larger state budget were made.

What will be missing from what minimal media attention there might be is a look at one of the largest consumers of state sales tax revenues -- the MBTA -- and how that operation is meeting its public obligations.

Lost amid the hype of CharlieCards and the constant image of Smilin' Dan Grabauskas asking to hear from riders is a deep look at what kind of job the T is doing with our money. It's been one year since fares were raised and I continue to search in vain in the Globe and Herald for signs of what that has meant in terms of revenues and ridership.

If you dig deep enough though, it's there. But the fiscal management of the MBTA should be as much a part of the discussion the state transportation future as the Turnpike Authority and the Big Dig and not hidden away in green eyeshade documents to be used as sleep potions.

The most telling comment:

Yet despite the infusion of more than $50 million in revenue and just a $4 million jump in expenses, the MBTA's operating loss rose to $881,265,000 compared to $879,572,000 the previous year.

The MBTA needs to be held accountable for its budget and it needs to operate this large transportation system in a fiscally responsible manner.

In other news about MBTA mismanagement, The Gloucester Daily Times published an editorial today regarding how the MBTA should have repaired the bridge connecting Rockport and Ipswich in 1984 when the bridge had to be replace. This is crazy!!