MBTA Budget To Cut 1,200 Jobs

The group that has final say over the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's finances is cutting $160 million out of the T's 2010 budget. It presents its final report Thursday morning.

The MBTA Advisory Board is slashing the T's operating budget by almost $30 million and cutting wages by more than $130 million, which effectively eliminates 1,200 of the T's 6,000 jobs.

When the MBTA presented its first-draft budget in March, it included an anticipated $160 million dollar deficit.

T officials had hoped a proposed gas tax increase would bail out the MBTA, but that didn't happen.

In an unusually blunt report Thursday, the advisory board says it would gladly authorize a supplemental budget if legislators provide the T with a fresh revenue stream by the time the budget goes into effect on July 1.