"T riders face nearly 20 percent fare hike; Proposal follows $160m state bailout" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | July 9, 2009
Commuters who depend on public transportation could soon pay nearly 20 percent more to ride buses, trains, and trolleys under a wide-ranging fare proposal unveiled yesterday, little more than a week after the state provided an infusion of $160 million to help the state’s transit agency.
Through HIGHER TAXES!
The proposal includes a broad array of increases that would bring in an estimated $69 million a year and affect everyone who uses public transportation, from the suburban resident who takes commuter rail once a month to the city resident who depends on a monthly bus or subway pass for all local travel.
Translation: FUCK the POOR!!!!!
But if we cut budgets, it is the poor who will be hurt, blah, blah, blah!
I'm SO SICK of LOOTING LIBERALS and their SHIT MOUTHS, can you tell?
Advocates have warned that higher prices will drive people away from public transit when the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is struggling to retain riders who turned to the T when gas prices spiked last summer.
Hey, MBTA! Eat THIS!!!
Tourists and others who pay cash would be hit hardest....
Translation: DO NOT, under any circumstances, VACATION in BOSTON -- EVER!!!!!
Despite the additional money from the state, provided by an increase in the sales tax, transportation officials had warned in recent weeks that a fare increase was a near certainty, given the transit agency’s long-term debt problems. Yesterday’s release came in an afternoon e-mail and without comment from the T general manager, Daniel A. Grabauskas, or the chairman of its board, Transportation Secretary James A. Aloisi Jr.
Related: What Your T Ticket Pays For
Lee Matsueda, an organizer with the T Riders Union, said the fare proposal was especially galling to transit riders because car commuters from the suburbs have largely been held harmless by the Legislature. After lawmakers approved an increase in the sales tax, instead of the gas tax increase proposed by the governor, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority canceled a scheduled toll increase.
That's because the LYING, LOOTING LEGISLATORS DRIVE IN to the city!
See: Boston's Prime Parking Spots
“They see the turnpike tollpayers getting out of a hike,’’ Matsueda said. “They’re seeing people who use cars who pay for gas getting out of an increase in the gas tax.’’
I say we DUMP ALL of 'em!!!
He and other transit advocates have held out some hope, however remote, that the T could use the recent legislative rescue to buy time and possibly lay the groundwork for future assistance from Beacon Hill. But in the current climate, with declining tax revenue and the Legislature fresh off a tax increase, transit officials do not seem to be banking on further help.
In addition to potential fare increases, the T released a series of potential service cuts in bus, train, and ferry service yesterday. But the agency said in the document detailing those cuts that it was not recommending imposing them.
And they wonder why we are all pissed!
“Service cutbacks remain under consideration and are outlined in this booklet,’’ the document said. “However, the projected loss in ridership resulting from these cuts would limit cost savings to just $55 million, far short of what is needed to close the budget gap for the next fiscal year.’’
Several other transit agencies across the country are under similar financial duress and have increased fares, cut service, or both....
I DON'T CARE about OTHER PLACES, Globe!
Why are you using the old "they are worse than me" argument?
The MBTA said it hopes that a fare increase will protect commuters from another hike for at least two years.
Is that ORWELLIAN or what?
Yeah, PAYING THROUGH the NOSE NOW will STOP a FEE INCREASE!
If YOU BUY this LOAD of BS, Bay Staters, you DESERVE to have your nose shoved into it!!!!!
The agency has been depleting its reserves and redoubling its borrowing in the past year just to stay solvent.
Oh, great, they are MAKING the PROBLEM WORSE by BORROWING MORE MONEY!!!!
The T has some of the nation’s highest benefit costs for its workers....
Yeah, right, it is the WORKER'S FAULT, not the USURIOUS BANKS!!!
I'm so sick of this SHIT from the Boston Globe!!!!
No wonder they are LOSING $1.6 million (or more) a week!!!!!!
But the T’s bigger problem, more than $8 billion in debt and interest, continues to weigh down the agency with escalating yearly payments.
Need I EVEN TYPE IT, folks?!!!!!
About 30 cents of every dollar in the T’s operating budget is used to pay debt.
Nice to know that YOUR TAXES and the TAX INCREASE are PAYING DEBT SERVICE to BANKS while YOU EAT SHIT, huh, Bay Stater?
Without the $160 million infusion from the Legislature, the combination of fare hikes and service cuts would have been far more drastic. The recent legislative rescue could provide enough money to meet the agency’s needs through next July.
But to avoid an even larger increase next year, when debt payments go up substantially and Patrick and others will be up for election, state officials made the decision to begin the process of raising fares in the next few months.
Yeah, the politicians think we will forget the ass-reaming we've taken!
FAT F***ING CHANCE, a**holes!!!!!!!
Not when OUR TAX DOLLARS are being used to PAY OFF BANKS and the STATE'S BAD DECISIONS!!!!
MBTA passenger counts increased by record amounts last year, as gas prices rose, but began to fall this year as the recession deepened and more people lost jobs. An increase in fares is likely to reduce ridership further.
So the STATE LOSES EITHER WAY -- which means SO DO YOU, taxpayers!!!!!
Transit analysts have spent the last several months trying to measure how deep and lasting the loss in ridership would be, balancing the losses to determine how much money an increase in fares would raise for the MBTA.
Yup, they SPEND SO MUCH TIME COUNTING BEANS and seeing HOW THEY CAN SCREW YOU!!!!
Aloisi has said several times in recent weeks that he looks forward to the day when fare hikes on the MBTA, which affect some of the state’s poorest residents, are as politically unacceptable as higher tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike and an increase in the gas tax, which drew significant opposition when they were proposed by Patrick....
Pfffft!
Did you know it is snowing in hell, readers?
Another nail in the coffin of "global warming," huh?
--more--"
