A transit task force report falls short of finding new money sources

A new report meant to provide Gov. Maura Healey with recommendations for a long-term transportation finance plan shed light on the state’s needs, but fell short on providing a direct path to address them.

For most of last year, a 31-member task force appointed by Healey met regularly to tackle the complicated task of finding ways to pay for roads, bridges, regional transit and the MBTA.

When the report was released Tuesday, Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Jim Aloisi was eager to see what money-raising methods the group had come up with. But there were no silver bullets. Aloisi said he was “disappointed, but not surprised.”

In the end, the main focus of the task force report was “the immediate financial challenges” of the state’s transportation system, including micro-transit agencies, regional transit authorities and the MBTA. The T is staring down an estimated operating deficit of $700 million to $900 million this year.

The report recommends using funds from the so-called millionaires tax, which generated $2.6 billion in fiscal 2024, to “stabilize the operating conditions” of transportation systems across the state.

Healey said she used that recommendation in a plan announced this week to invest $8 billion in state transportation.

While Aloisi said he “applauds” the task force's goal to bring financial stability to the system, the T “needs more than just being stabilized, it needs more money ... that means more net new revenue. There’s nothing here that says anything about that.”

The task force did look at how much money Massachusetts brings in from tolls and motor vehicle registry fees compared to other states. And the report offers broad recommendations, like "continue to aggressively pursue federal funds." But the report does not delve into how new revenue sources could be implemented in Massachusetts.

Task force member Amie Shei, who is chief executive of the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts, said she stands by the report and that it provides “a strategic framework for how to think about transportation funding.”

“The details, the implementation plan, are really left to those that are tasked with making those decisions,” she said. That means members of the legislature and the Healey administration.

MBTA Advisory Board member Brian Kane, another task force participant, told WBUR's Morning Edition this week that as a state, “we do need to continue to have the long-term discussion” about transportation funding.