WBUR reports Gov. Baker has signed a law that will limit MBTA fare increases to 7% every other year. Previously, the limit had been, depending on one's interpretation, up to 10%.
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I thought the voters of MA
By J
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 10:03am
I thought the voters of MA were absolutely against raising taxes by a set amount over a set time. I remember some kind of referendum too.
Our elected officials are really pissing me off.
By Boston_res
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 10:25am
I feel like more and more of them are adopting a "I know best what's best for you" attitude. How the hell do these people keep getting elected? ARGH!
This legislation doesn't
By cden4
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 4:51pm
This legislation doesn't REQUIRE fares and passes to go up. It just limits how much they can.
You're referring to the gas tax indexing referendum, which would have AUTOMATICALLY raised the gas tax at the rate of inflation.
It doesn't REQUIRE the maximum increse....
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 5:44pm
.... but the Control Board has extracted MORE than the maximum increases since our GOP gov put it in place (by reading the prior law in a way not intended by the legislature).
Are the Masspike fares are going up at the same rate/frequency?
By fietsdavid
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 10:30am
If so, great!
If not, then why are drivers not subject to the same burden?
They outumber us transit riders....
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 10:36am
... but this is, at least, an improvement over the dreadful current law (which allowed 10 per cent "on average" increases).
There are plenty
By ChrisInEastie
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 1:05pm
of burdens. -Someone who uses both forms of transportation regularly.
The us vs. them whining gets real old, real fast.
Its not whining. Its
By Kinopio
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 1:46pm
Its not whining. Its expecting fair treatment. As it is the T riders get screwed with a hike every other year while drivers continue to pay less and less gas taxes. This has been true for decades now.
Kinopio, if you feel like you
By city dweller
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 2:37pm
Kinopio, if you feel like you are getting screwed as a T rider and you seem to think that car owners are getting an almost free ride, then you are FREE to incur the wildly expensive option of owning a car OR you can do the SENSIBLE thing and get a bike. No one is forcing you to take the T. OR and here's a crazy option: you can WALK. Sincerely, city dweller of 20 years who (gasp!) walks.
wow...
By mimomoo
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 6:19pm
Walking! Oh yes, of course! Oh, wait....I work an hour away from where I live. WELP! So much for this idiots brilliant suggestion.
Cool, so
By ChrisInEastie
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 9:06pm
Go ahead and buy a train, pay for registration, insurance, inspection, maintenance, fuel, and repairs, find a place to store it, etc., and then you can use the tracks for less. Deal?
This law LIMITS fare
By anon
Fri, 07/29/2016 - 12:52pm
This law LIMITS fare increases.
There's no law limiting Pike toll increases.
How about this for an initiative petition
By anon
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 10:32am
All statehouse based pols - including the Governor - pay market rates for parking.
won't work....
By RTM
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 12:13pm
They will just add the cost to their per diems.
Increases
By Bugs Bunny
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 10:44am
I'm waiting for the "it's just the cost of a cup of coffee each day" comment from the Governor.....of course that coffee is a $3.95 Starbucks frappachinno
Time for a similar law for
By Trump-Baker 2016
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 10:46am
Time for a similar law for gas tax and tolls to go up at the same time T fares go up. Only increasing public transit costs is not only unfair (in this climate where both parties agree income inequality is a huge issue), but will just lead more and more people to abandon the T in favor of driving. This may be part of Bakers plan, to ease the problems of the T by reducing the # of riders, but it wont be great for drivers to be fighting with even more people than projected on the roads.
Driving through Maine and NH recently and paying tolls on 95, its time MA added tolls to 95 and 93 from NH. I dont see why we need to subsidize NH workers commute if they want us to pay to drive on their highways. With new toll technology fares would be collected at full speed with no toll workers like in NH and on the Tobin.
That's how and why Charlie Baker was elected Bay State Guv.
By mplo
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 1:21pm
That's how and why Charlie Baker was elected Bay State Governor in the first place. He was one who'd always advocated cutting public transportation, including the T, in the first place. As it is, if the constant problems that have been cropping up on various parts of the MBTA system are any indication, the T, which has a long history of having constant problems, is having even more frequent, and worse ones, to date. It's disgusting that the fare on the T is being raised without the problems (which are many) on the T being fixed in the first place.
Free rides!
By Local resident
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 10:51am
Fare hikes???? Nope. Just come to the Field's Corner T stop, where almost everyone just evades fares and illegally walks through the gates. Sure, buzzers go off all the time. But the staff doesn't care, so just go for it.
Free fares
By anon
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 4:04pm
How bad is the free ride problem? Is it in the millions or billions? What are the worst stations?
Prop 3.5
By anon
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 11:07am
So for property owners, it's Prop 2.5. For MBTA riders, it's Prop 3.5?
Bah. Seems like the MBTA should have been held to 2.5% fare raises.
Apologies, I left something out of the original post
By adamg
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 11:14am
The limit was originally, at least according to the governor's interpretation, 10% every two years. I've added that to the post.
Fare increases
By John-W
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 11:52am
And in theory it's not an automatic raise of that amount every two years, it's that the MBTA can raise the fares up to that amount within that time frame. Yeah, yeah that means they will definitely do it, but it's not exactly the same as pegging the gas tax to a regular % increase to match inflation or something like that.
Pedantically yours.
Same for Prop 2.5
By anon
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 4:31pm
Prop 2. 5 is the ceiling of the increase, not a required increase.
Dyslexic pedants untie!
Maybe we should also
By ChrisInEastie
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 1:07pm
take a look at salary decreases every 2 years (with a cap, of course–we're not monsters!) for the people at the top if T service doesn't improve despite increased fares.
ChrisInEastie: best comment ever!
By city dweller
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 4:14pm
Love this! lol
Salary decreases?
By Will LaTulippe
Thu, 07/28/2016 - 4:33pm
We can have that now. I volunteer to do the work of a current T exec at 10% less than their current salary.
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