Advocates, legislators, professionals in the transportation field, planners, and residents of the greater Boston area gathered for a spirited discussion on ways to advance new revenue streams for the Commonwealth’s transportation system at a MetroFuture Strategy Summit on Wednesday May 28.  The conversation, led by Eric Bourassa, a consumer advocate from MassPIRG and leader in the Transportation Investment Coalition, covered a range of draft implementation recommendations advanced in the MetroFuture plan.  They include statewide revenue sources like raising the gas tax; increasing mechanisms for local and regional revenue generation, like assessing impact fees; and increasing support for the MBTA and other RTAs, through mechanisms like Commonwealth assumption of a portion of the MBTA’s debt and forward funding the state’s other RTAs.  Click here to download the handout of draft recommendations used during this discussion.

Several recommendations drew quite a bit of interest, although none was seen as a sure-fire solution to the Commonwealth’s transportation needs.  The most commonly supported were:

• Gas tax, although there were concerns about political feasibility.
• Open Road tolling given the technology to do it, but with concerns about privacy.
• Impact fees as a long term strategy, but with the note that it could limit good development if not done right.

There were as many perspectives on potential revenue streams as there were people in the room, but common themes included:

Building political will is crucial.  Particularly with regard to the gas tax, many of the event’s participants expressed concern that the political will was currently lacking to carry out MetroFuture’s draftrecommendations.  Many people, including State Representative Denise Provost, mentioned that legislators were reluctant to get behind an increased gas tax without vocal support for the concept from their constituents.  But Rep. Provost did feel there are many members who would support the gas tax given the extent of the problem. 

Ensuring an equitable and balanced solution.  Another topic that was central to a number of comments was the difficulty of finding a balance of revenue sources so one population is not burdened more than any other.  This was an issue of particular concern to those who were concerned about tolling, which many feel places a disproportionate burden on Metro West. 

Click here to download more complete notes of the discussion.