Senate's after-midnight vote supports budget, MBTA reforms
The Senate shortly after midnight Friday morning unanimously passed a $38.1 billion budget plan for the fiscal year that begins in July after Democrats and Republicans came together over a compromise to put the MBTA under the authority of financial control board. The deal over the MBTA brokered between Sen. Thomas McGee and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, with input from the governor's office, calls for a five-member control board to given management authority over the T for at least three years, but no more than five years.
The control board would be made up of three members of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation board, including the secretary of transportation, and two additional members with experience in transportation finance and mass transit operation. McGee said that by making sure members of the MassDOT also serve on the control board he feels comfortable that his concerns about creating a disconnect in the transportation system and adding harmful layer of bureaucracy have been addressed.
The agreement does not address Gov. Charlie Baker's request for an exemption for the MBTA from the "Pacheco Law" governing the privatization of services, and does not give the control board the authority to raise fares beyond what was allowed in the 2013 reform law that put a 5 percent cap every two years on fare hikes.
The Transportation Committee plans a second hearing on the governor's MBTA bill, which includes those requests, next week, and Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said he's still hoping a separate bill addressing those and other matters will come out in June.
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