In an attempt to revive a debt-ridden transportation system, Gov. Deval Patrick proposed a 19-cent gas tax hike on Feb. 20 as part of a comprehensive transportation bill to generate reform and revenue.
If passed, the tax will stand at about $0.42 per gallon, the highest gas tax in the nation.
Patrick outlined where each cent of the hike would be directed, including six cents to improve service and prevent fare hikes and four cents to stave off toll increases at the Massachusetts Turnpike. The tax will also go toward regional road and rail projects.
"We're at the point where decades of neglect of transportation agencies have taken their toll," Colin Durrant (LA '98), the deputy secretary for communications and policy at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation (EOT), told the Daily. "Really, it's about rescuing our beleaguered transportation system."
The transportation bill includes a series of reforms along with the revenue-generating tax hike, designed to offset the transportation authority's growing deficit. Without an overhaul, the transportation system predicts a shortfall between $15 billion and $19 billion in the next two decades.
Reforms proposed in the bill focus on streamlining the transportation bureaucracy under the governor's purview. Patrick has proposed abolishing the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and consolidating highway, aviation, car and rail operations within the EOT.
Democratic State Rep. Carl Sciortino (LA 00), whose district includes parts of Medford and Somerville, said that while reforms are necessary, they will only cover up to $6 billion of the industry's deficit.
"When we pass legislation, it has to include the gas tax," Sciortino told the Daily. "The gas tax is a likely and logical source of revenue."
Patrick's proposals include cutting 300 positions and transferring transportation employees' healthcare coverage to the state system. The bill also calls for the elimination of special pension perks.
"It's not only about the gas tax increase," Durrant said. "It's about really aggressive reforms to change the way things are done to create a more responsible transportation industry."
Opponents of the tax hike have criticized its magnitude. The 19-cent proposal, many say, will prove ineffective in bringing enduring solutions to the state's transportation system.
The governor has also received criticism for proposing a tax hike during an economic downturn.
State House and Senate Republicans held a press conference on Thursday outlining their opposition to the proposal. They rejected the idea that an additional tax burden on Massachusetts residents would serve as a solution for the transportation industry's shortfalls.
"I cannot in good faith ask, nor can I justify asking taxpayers to fork over even more of their hard-earned dollars to support Governor Patrick's misplaced priorities," State House Minority Leader Brad Jones, Jr. said in a statement.
Supporters of the hike have defended the 19-cent proposal as necessary and sufficient.
"We can't afford not to increase the gas tax," Stephanie Pollack, associate director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University, told the Daily. "There is so much that needs to be done in Massachusetts on roads and trains that you could definitely have even a bigger tax hike ... and use all the money."
Pollack added, though, that if the reforms are fully implemented in conjunction with the tax hike, the 19-cent proposal would adequately solve transportation problems in the long run.
According to Sciortino, even a 19-cent hike does not cover all the industry's needs and that he would only agree to lower it "with extreme caution."
"We need to be cognizant and recognize the struggle people are facing," he said, "but if we let our roads continue to be neglected, everyone will pay for that."
In lieu of a gas tax hike, others have proposed increasing tolls. The Turnpike Authority voted on Tuesday to increase tolls in the Boston area with the qualification that the increases would be cancelled if the legislature passes Patrick's tax hike.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo opposed the vote to increase Boston-area tolls and agreed that there must exist a revenue component to the transportation overhaul. The size of the tax, however, is up for negotiation, in his opinion.
"With respect to the governor's proposal, there is no magic number for a gas tax," Seth Gitell, a spokesperson for DeLeo, told the Daily. "[DeLeo is] going to consider a range of revenue options," but toll hikes are "not what he's envisioning."
Pollack agreed that toll hikes were not the most equitable solution. A 19-cent gas tax hike, she said, would not be enough to eliminate tolls, "but people on the Mass Pike are already paying more than their fair share."
Starting this Wednesday, the Joint Committee on Transportation will hold public hearings to discuss the bill.
"We'll see what other needs surface and what other people can let go of," Sciortino said. "A lot of legislators are viewing this from a very regional perspective. We have to balance all those regional concerns."
