Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
From The Beacon, April 2013
It was a brutal winter, with near-record snowstorms in every corner of the state. And once the white flakes melt away, cities and towns will all have the same view: crumbling and pothole-laden asphalt and concrete, broken by ice, scraped by time and plows, and eroded by wear and tear. It won’t be a pretty picture. That’s why the timing of the upcoming debate on transportation funding could not be more appropriate.
In the next few days and weeks, the Legislature will be debating whether to enact a sweeping transportation investment plan and the revenues to pay for it, or to punt downfield with a smaller package addressing only a portion of the problem.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo has said that he would prefer to pass transportation reform this spring, before the state budget. His timing is spot-on.
The MMA strongly supports enactment of a broad and comprehensive plan that increases Chapter 90 funding to at least $300 million a year and invests in all other aspects of the transportation network as well, including all regional transit systems, the statewide road and bridge program, and key projects that leverage development in all corners of the state.
This will require an annual investment of at least $800 million to $1 billion a year, according to key stakeholders and experts. Obviously, this will require a tax package to back up this expenditure. The MMA membership recognized the need for new revenues at our recent Annual Meeting, passing a resolution supporting a revenue plan that is adequate to fund the transportation needs of communities and the Commonwealth. The governor has proposed his own tax plan, and the Legislature is readying its own revenue package for release and deliberation around the first of the month. Either way, the message is obvious: new revenues will be necessary in order to break away from the current path of stagnation and disrepair.
As part of a broad coalition of public, private, civic, business and stakeholder groups, the MMA is calling for a transportation reform and revenue plan that is large enough to fix our broken system. Anything smaller will actually cost more in the long run. That’s because repairs to our roads, bridges and transit systems will be more expensive in the future due to inflation (construction costs increase at a faster rate than general inflation) and due to the fact that the scope of the repairs needed will expand with every delay.
That’s a long way of saying that doing too little today will simply shift a costlier burden onto our children and grandchildren.
Further, the economic benefits of investing now are clear. Improved roads, bridges, highways and transit systems will attract businesses and people to the state, making us more competitive, and will leverage private development that will propel our growth and generate a larger return.
No one runs for office relishing a vote on taxes. Yet municipal officials vote every year to set a tax rate that increases property tax bills for almost every household and business. Instead of treating this as a political hot potato and tossing it to someone else, community leaders engage in a fully transparent process to identify and explain the need and show where the increased revenues will go. And because the dollars are invested locally, the results are clear, and public support and consent is achieved.
At the state level, the same process can be used, especially for transportation. Investing in roads and bridges is a highly transparent process, because residents (who are also business owners, commuters, drivers, riders, cyclists and walkers) can see their tax dollars go to work immediately. A tax vote tied to improving our local and state roads and transportation systems will definitely garner strong public support over the coming year, because the benefits of the new taxes will show up right away. If the plan is large enough.
Of course, this is also a powerful argument for increasing Chapter 90 funding. Legislators and municipal leaders are certainly aware of the MMA’s comprehensive report demonstrating that cities and towns are facing a $362 million gap between current Chapter 90 allocations and the spending necessary to bring local roads up to a state of good repair, the industry standard. Boosting Chapter 90 to $300 million a year, up from the current $200 million level, will close a portion of that gap, and the dollars will immediately be released to projects in every corner of Massachusetts, putting people to work filling potholes, repaving streets and rebuilding critical infrastructure that is failing.
Communities are responsible for 30,000 miles of roads, about 90 percent of the total in the state. Passing a too-small transportation plan that does not address the Chapter 90 issue would ignore one of the greatest needs in the state and would make it very hard for taxpayers to see where their tax dollars are going – if there is no change on the 30,000 miles of streets that they use every day.
Now that the snow is gone (or soon will be), the crumbling condition of roads is even more apparent. The coming of spring is ushering in more than April showers and May flowers. The 2013 construction season has begun.
That’s why this is the best time to pass an ambitious and forward-looking transportation reform bill, so we can put the investment to work right now – without delay.