As T Steeps in Debt, Beacon Hill Dithers

The MBTA unveiled a new budget for 2010 this morning that cuts wages by $130 million, effectively eliminating 1,200 of its 6,000 jobs, reports WBUR. (No estimate was given regarding the percentage of bad drivers who would be among the layoffs.)

We were worried nearly a month ago about the T's basically hysterical service reduction proposals, but, despite sales tax increases and other measures taken to bail out the Turnpike Authority, Massachusetts lawmakers have been troublingly quiet about taking similar steps to save the T.

While Senate President Therese Murray has promised that there will be no toll hikes, she has only spoken about the T euphemistically. It is the elephant on the Senate floor, even as legislators have dismissed Governor Deval Patrick's call for an increase in the gas tax that would plug its deficit. In the House, Joseph Wagner, the cochairman of the transportation committee from provicincial backwater Chicopee, Western Massachusetts's second largest city, believes that "the T might not get all it needs." Classy.

David Bernstein, at the Boston Phoenix, blames the Senate's obeisance to the 6,000 member Boston Carmen's Union for its lack of action on basic reforms. Perhaps the union's influence will wane when it numbers a mere 4,800.

At BlueMassGroup, Charley on the MTA wants to organize the T under the governor to add the accountability that Dan Grabauskas seems to lack. (Outraged Liberal, for a different set of reasons, agrees, while pointing out that the sales tax increase will be a stopgap measure at best, even on the Pike.)

But, clearly, something needs to be done. The T has been endangering us even at current staffing levels, and service cuts will disproportionately affect the most disadvantaged in greater Boston (and, well, people from the suburbs who would justifiably rather not drive into town).

Where, among our lawmakers, are the advocates for the 1.3 million Massachusetts residents who ride the T every day?