BOSTON – Mass. Gov. Deval L. Patrick yesterday ordered the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to suspend a series of hearings on proposed fare hikes of up to 20 percent, The Boston Globe reported.
Patrick’s decision to cancel the hearings, including one scheduled to be held next week at Attleboro City Hall, for the time being is likely to delay any increases until next year, the paper said.
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It comes less than a week after the MBTA agreed to pay $300,000 to buy out the contract of its embattled general manager, Daniel A. Grabauskas, a Republican appointee who had clashed with the Patrick administration.
Internal administration e-mails also surfaced this week showing Mass. Transportation Secretary James Aloisi wanted a fare increase to take effect as soon as January, a disclosure that angered Bay State lawmakers who recently voted to raise the sales tax from 5 percent to 6.25 percent effective this month and send $160 million of the new revenue to the MBTA.
Aloisi said in a statement a fare increase would not be considered until “until an extensive top-to-bottom review is completed of the T finances and operations.” He said the Patrick administration believes more cost savings can be found in the debt-laden transit agency, which operates commuter rail service between Boston and Providence.
Patrick has appointed a commission led by David F. D’Alessandro, the retired former CEO of John Hancock Financial, to review the agency, with a report due by Nov. 1.
Dan Payne, a Democratic media consultant, told The Globe the turmoil at the MBTA and elsewhere in Massachusetts’ transportation hierarchy could pose a problem for Patrick, who is up for re-election next year and already has drawn three challengers.
“The transportation agencies look like the gang that can’t drive straight,” Payne told The Globe. “The thing that makes transportation so politically treacherous is that nearly everybody travels every day. There’s still time to fix this before it becomes an issue in the gubernatorial campaign, but the clock is ticking louder every day.”
Additional information is available at MBTA.com.
