Blog

“Moving Forward with Funding: New strategies to support transportation and balanced regional economic growth,” from MassINC, proposes new funding mechanisms for transit (and possibly also roads and bridges) that aim to break the political logjam created by the belief that the rest of the state is unfairly being asked to pay for Boston’s Big Dig and MBTA. By raising revenue within the same regions benefiting from transit, the authors suggest that there may be greater willingness to impose new taxes based on payroll and/or a VMT (vehicle miles traveled). These taxes could also provide additional funding for the RTAs in gateway cities such as Worcester and Lowell that currently receive only a small percentage of local sales tax.