"T warns fares may rise by up to 20%; Service cuts could limit any increase" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | June 5, 2009
The MBTA expects to increase fares by at least 15 percent to 20 percent beginning this fall, Patrick administration officials announced yesterday, raising the specter that transit riders will have to pay both higher taxes and more for their CharlieCards by year's end as part of the state's efforts to fix its transportation systems....
Translation: fix the transportation system = debt payments to banks and funding looters' pensions.
Though the T's deficit officially stands at $160 million for the budget year that begins July 1, Aloisi and MBTA managers say it has been growing larger than that in recent weeks and will get larger in the following years. The soft economy has diminished the agency's advertising intake for the next budget year, and the T recently learned that it will need to pay $9.6 million more than expected on a new contract for its disabled riders transit service....
The T is weighed down by a debt load of more than $8 billion, which absorbs nearly a third of its operating budget every year, as well as high operating costs and worker benefits. Some unions have agreed to forgo a 4 percent increase due July 1, but the T's largest union, the Carmen's Union, has not responded to a management request to make a similar concession....
Yeah, right, it is the WORKERS' FAULT!
ANYBODY'S but the BANKS, right, Globe?
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I guess they need the extra dough to pay for the guns, 'eh?
"T ends bid to arm officers with rifles; Uproar from community spurs reversal by board" by Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | June 6, 2009
The MBTA has shelved plans to arm transit patrol officers with semiautomatic rifles after a community leader voiced concerns about providing such heavy weaponry to officers who patrol crowded bus terminals and train platforms.
MBTA Police Chief Paul MacMillan said he reevaluated the plans in response to a request from the president of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, Darnell Williams, who is also a member of the MBTA board of directors.
"His request came because of the concerns of the community," said MacMillan. "For now, until we get some community input and have some more discussions, we're turning those weapons over to the special operations [SWAT] teams."
The Globe reported Wednesday that the MBTA had purchased 10 Bushmaster semiautomatic rifles and provided four hours of training to patrol officers slated to have access to the weapons in cases of extreme emergency, such as a terrorist attack or a shooting rampage. But community leaders such as Williams had not been informed of the plan, and they expressed frustration that the public was not notified or included in the decision to purchase or deploy the weapons....
Boston is one of 82 cities and towns in Massachusetts that obtained a total of 1,057 high-powered rifles free of charge during the past decade from a US military surplus program, state public safety officials confirmed this week.
Well, SOMEONE PAID FOR THEM, American TAXPAYERS!!!
The public safety officials have refused to say which communities received what weapons. It is unclear exactly how many are in the hands of specially trained SWAT officers and how many are deployed to patrol officers.
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