March 29, 2007
$19 Billion in the Hole. We already Spent $14 Billion on a Hole.
The big news in this mornings papers and airwaves was that a report from the Transportation Finance Commission has released a report that pretty much every state transit authority (including the MBTA, DCR, Turnpike Authority, and Highway Department) is in deficit spending and working to just keep up what they've got going. The deficit spending will result in a projected $19 billion deficit over the next 20 years according to the report. That's just for maintenance of the current infrastructure and doesn't account for things like the Green Line expansion to Union Square or other projects that were included to offset the pollution increase from the nearly $15 billion Big Dig project.
Everything we've heard today on the news or read in the papers uses words like "dire," "unsustainable," and "unrealistic." The projected shortfall is estimated at anywhere from $14 to $19 billion dollars. The Big Dig clocked in at around $15 billion in total cost. There's no surprise that the holes we've dug in the last ten years are going to cost some money moving into the future. Some of the considerations for offsetting the shortfall include stripping the promise of toll elimination on the Pike by 2017, increase of the gas tax state wide, and restructuring of the MBTA fare system so that they're not reliant on fare increases to balance their budget.
One proposal floated in reports today includes a consolidation of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA), and the Mass Highway Department. The three divisions provide similar services for different roadways across the sate with a significant amount of redundancy. Combining the three organizations will likely meet with some significant resistance from the lobbyists and protectionists in the state government. The follow up to this report will likely make news in weeks to come as the Commonwealth works to correct the systemic problems in funding sustainability of their projects.
Flickr user DavidDesign provides us with an image of the Big Dig tunnels.
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Welcome to the club of "dire" transit, Boston. Chicago welcomes you.
One problem is that the state continues to fund unsustainable pensions for retired workers. Most private companies have already or are now eliminating pensions because they cannot afford to fund them. It's time that state agencies balanced their budget by cutting unfundable benefits, instead of cutting essential maintenance and services that taxpayers depend on.