Watch CBS News

Keller: Will solving the MBTA's financial problems require no new taxes in Massachusetts? That may change.

Keller: Solving T's financial problems may require new taxes down the road
Keller: Solving T's financial problems may require new taxes down the road 02:26

The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.

WORCESTER - Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is touting the fact that her new plan to solve the MBTA's financial problems does not require raising new taxes, though that could change.

Solving the T's financial problems

The mood was celebratory at Worcester's Union Station Tuesday as Healey touted improvements in MBTA service ("no more slow zones for the first time in 20 years!") and unveiled a plan to use funds from the Millionaire's Tax to solve the T's short-term financial crisis.

Healey said the state will "invest over $8 billion over the next 10 years to improve transportation in every corner of our state," and vowed that "this does not require new taxes - no new taxes!"

Make that - for now.

Tucked into the governor's transportation funding task force report is a 71-item list of potential new funding sources if costs should grow and current revenues fall short. And it includes everything from a 50% increase in traffic fines, to a half-percent hike in the sales tax, to new taxes on just about anything else you can imagine.

Will new taxes be necessary?

Will any of it be necessary? "It is not enough money to do everything," noted Brian Kane of the watchdog MBTA Advisory Board, a member of the task force and a supporter of Healey's plan. "It's not enough to fix every single road and bridge in the Commonwealth but it is certainly enough according to what the engineers' estimates are to make a huge dent in our backlog."

Still, 26 of the 71 revenue sources identified in the report are listed as potentially having a negative impact on our economic competitiveness.

And "tax competitiveness is an issue," says Eileen McAnneny, a senior fellow at the Pioneer Institute and former head of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. She wonders is taxpayer will increasingly flee the higher rates that fund the transit revival, and with what impact. "We may see that outmigration continue for a little while, so don't know if the revenues will come in at the clip as they have in the long term."

And could that mean that list of tax options proves prophetic? All the ideas on it are in use already in other states, like the new congestion pricing fees just introduced in New York City. And give Healey credit, by including them in this report she's acknowledging the Millionaire's Tax might cover our costs in the short term, but not the long run.

After all, that tax was just an idea in a study once - before it became the law.

View CBS News In
CBS News App
Chrome Safari
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.