And no trust in Blogger given how the month has opened up.
"Seventy-four cents out of every $1 in the state’s Transportation Trust Fund - where the state gas tax, Registry of Motor Vehicles fees, and a portion of the sales tax are deposited - gets drained for debt payments"
No wonder your subway and bus service is a pos, Bostonians. I keep telling you that is where the money is going.
"Tab for transit fixes soaring; State needs $15b for rail, highway, and bridge projects, panel warns" September 22, 2011|By Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff
More than $15 billion in repairs and replacements are needed to keep the state’s aging highway, bridge, and transit network in sound condition, an independent advisory committee warned yesterday.
In the Boston area alone, the day-to-day costs of operating the city’s decrepit subway, rail, and bus lines are so overwhelming that riders should expect a substantial fare increase, the first in five years, the top transportation official in Massachusetts said.
“We should be talking about at least a modest fare increase,’’ Secretary of Transportation Richard A. Davey said yesterday, with the MBTA facing a projected $161 million deficit for the coming year. “Unfortunately, it’s likely that it won’t be modest to close the gap.’’
The highway system is also in trouble, being so far in debt that it must borrow to meet basic operating expenses, such as $145 million in payroll, rent, highway striping, and other annual costs, according to yesterday’s presentation.
“If we fund our mowing and striping program with bonds, then in year 19 you’re still paying for that mowing program you did in 2012,’’ said Stephanie Pollack, associate director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University and a member of the state’s Transportation Advisory Committee. The committee is a roundtable of academics, activists, business leaders, engineers, and strategists who advise the transportation secretary.
Related: Municipal Bond Milking
The panel’s finance subcommittee offered stark findings yesterday that many officials in the room already understood: The state’s transportation system has too much debt and too little revenue, and the picture is arguably bleaker than it was in 2007....
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Stalled T Train
Let's get going, huh?
T fare hike likely despite ridership high
Where is all that money going?
Seventy-four cents out of every $1 in the state’s Transportation Trust Fund - where the state gas tax, Registry of Motor Vehicles fees, and a portion of the sales tax are deposited - gets drained for debt payments....
Those in the room yesterday, including Davey, seemed to agree that the state must raise more money if it is to maintain, much less expand, a transportation system essential to the Massachusetts economy and quality of life.
“The resources have to come from somewhere,’’ Davey said afterward....
The Legislature approved an increase in the sales tax in 2009, directing some of it to transportation, but sales tax receipts have not met expectations....
Related:
"Legislators also agreed last week to change legal language in the recently passed sales tax hike to assure credit agencies that $100 million earmarked for the Turnpike Authority would go toward paying off Big Dig debt"
Remember when they told you it was to save teachers, cops, and firemen?
Also see: Mass. tax collections are $723M higher than projected
Sick of the lies yet?
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Related:
Massachusetts' Lost Decade of Jobs
I just wanted you to see where your tax money came and went.
Also see: Secret Statehouse
Yup, resources have to come from somewhere:
"Cash-strapped T warns of fare increases, service cuts by July" September 28, 2011|By Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff
With the MBTA’s financial woes mounting, state transportation officials said yesterday that they expect to approve a fare increase in the spring that would take effect July 1.
Subway, bus, and commuter rail fares last rose Jan. 1, 2007. The 5 ½ years between increases - despite unrelenting budget pressure - would mean the coming hike may be steep and possibly bundled with service cuts....
On an already shitty service system!
The T is burdened by debt from past expansion and from investments in maintenance - even as it struggles to find money to pay for $4.5 billion in additional repairs and replacements needed to keep the aging system in working order. The T’s debt payments are poised to hit $450 million next year and exceed $500 million by 2016, eclipsing yearly fare collections.
Compounding the problem, the T’s other sources of income, including payments from local communities and a piece of the state sales tax, have not kept pace with rapidly rising expenses such as energy, health insurance, and The Ride, a federally mandated door-to-door service for people with disabilities. That creates an annual deficit that the T has struggled to close in recent years with a flurry of cuts and complex, one-time maneuvers - refinancing debt to spread out payments; thinning staffing levels, including switching from two operators to one on some subway lines; and selling long-term parking revenue to investors....
Related: Private Parking Ticket in Boston
Massachusetts Residents Taken For a Ride
Massachusetts Democrats Keep Making the Same Mistakes
Both parties $erve the $ame ma$ter.
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Also see:
"Advocates for transportation funding in Massachusetts have long considered a menu of options for raising revenue without fare hikes or tolls on commuters. An April report from A Better City identified options that include additional motor fuel taxes, personal property tax on motor vehicles, a fee for vehicle miles traveled by drivers, emission fees, parking taxes, property taxes, the personal income tax, payroll taxes, carbon taxes, development impact fees, and a local option sales tax....
And you scoff when I suggest an eventual fart meter and shit scale.
Yes, if the greedy globalists have their way we will all be paying for dookie.
What is truly sad is not my vulgarity, but the fact that the $$$ will be used to make debt interest payments to banks for bad deals.
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