Baker’s patience tested over his pending legislation
Photo | Courtesy of Baker Administration
Gov. Charlie Baker giving the State of the State address.
On paper, July 31 is 178 days away.
On Beacon Hill, it'll feel like it arrives a lot faster.
That's what Gov. Charlie Baker suggested in an address before the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Tuesday, snapping his fingers to indicate how quickly time will pass between now and the last day of formal legislative business for the two-year term.
"It's going to go by like this, and a lot of distractions are going to be there, with the national scene and all the rest, but here at home we have a whole bunch of really important things to get done," he said.
Baker used his speech to highlight the priorities he wants to see lawmakers act on over the next nearly six months, singling out his health care, housing and transportation legislation.
An $18 billion transportation bond bill Baker filed last summer remains before the Transportation Committee, whose co-chairs Rep. William Straus and Sen. Joseph Boncore have indicated an interest in advancing a version of it.
The Republican governor encouraged people who attended the breakfast at the Marriott Copley Place to talk to their legislators about the borrowing bill (H 4002), which proposes to direct $11 billion into road and bridge work and $7 billion towards transit.
"One of the things that usually happens with a lot of the big, complicated bond bills is they don't get passed until the very end of session," he said. "Sometimes they get passed 15 minutes after the end of session, which is always interesting. It would be really great if that could get passed sooner, so that we could actually start using some of the tools and the resources that are available under that bond bill for this construction season, which starts in the spring."
Baker discussed ongoing efforts to upgrade public transportation in Massachusetts. He said the state has begun playing catch-up after decades of underinvestment in transit infrastructure.
Expect "a lot more bus lanes," Baker said, describing rapid bus service as having had "profound and positive" effects on traffic "in every place we've tried it."
He mentioned plans to bring new subway cars and bi-level commuter rail coaches online, a series of weekend MBTA service shutdowns for crews to conduct improvement work, and projects that will bring commuter rail service to the South Coast and extend the MBTA's Green Line into Somerville.
In a few years, Baker said, the transit system should be in "far better shape than it is today."
"But it will be disruptive and it will require a certain amount of patience," he said. "I don't have any patience for this. I would like it to all be here by tomorrow. But I've also learned to understand, when you're working on an operating system, it's a little more complicated."
James Rooney, the president and CEO of the Greater Boston of Chamber of Commerce, said after the speech that he's thinking long-term when it comes to transportation and development, with an eye toward connecting different regions of the state and toward Boston-area projects like Suffolk Downs, Boston Landing and UMass Boston's Bayside site.
"We know that all of what the governor had to say today needs to be done, and more," Rooney told the News Service. "More in the short-term and more in the long-term."
Rooney said there needs to be "a financial plan that stands the scrutiny test for the next 25 years."
"How are we going to get this done and give people confidence that, OK, we're dealing with some difficult situations now, but I know something's going to get better?" he said. "We have to rebuild that trust and confidence that indeed there's going to be light at the end of the tunnel."
House Speaker Robert DeLeo has said he plans to bring a transportation revenue package to the floor sometime before April, and he said last month that the legislation will be "more expansive than a straight gas tax" increase. Baker has voiced opposition to the idea of raising the gas tax and said in a January radio interview that he would veto a gas tax hike "if that's all it was."
Baker didn't touch on the potential for a gas tax increase in his speech. Separately from whatever transportation investment plan lawmakers might take up, Baker is also working with other states in hopes of creating a regional cap-and-invest program for carbon emissions from transportation, which could ultimately increase gas prices between 5 and 17 cents per gallon at the pump.
The Boston Chamber supports a 15-cent gas tax increase over three years.
Rooney said he views gas tax increases and the transportation climate initiative as separate issues, in part because it will be at least a few years before TCI generates any revenue.
"So we separate it and say, the now moment is the gas tax," Rooney said. "That can be done Monday, and it's very easy to implement, and we need funds for our transportation systems and we need to incent behavior of drivers."
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