“…’The MBTA has been in a bit of a fiscal mess for at least the last 20 years, more likely, the last 120 years,’ said Brian Kane, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board.
Part of the MBTA’s problems result from a change made in 2000, when the commonwealth allocated a portion of its sales tax to the system as a permanent revenue source. The sales tax, which will provide around $1.47 billion of the MBTA’s fiscal 2025 funding, has grown at a rate of 2.29% per year since 2000 — far less than the 6.5% to 8.5% that officials forecasted at the time.
‘In the last 25 years, the T has not really had a balanced budget except maybe once or twice, and at least one of those times is only really on paper,’ Kane said.
Now, with the hit to farebox revenue from COVID, the MBTA faces a budget gap of nearly $700 million in fiscal 2026 that will only grow, according to a published report.
‘The service cuts required to close a $696 million deficit in 13 months are simply impossible to propose and still be considered a public transportation provider,’ the MBTA Advisory Board wrote in a June report…”
07/22/24 | By Christina Baker