STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
UNPERSUADED BY HIS arguments for greater flexibility in setting fares, lawmakers on Tuesday sent back to Gov. Charlie Baker legislation strictly capping MBTA fare increases at 7 percent every two years.
Baker had removed the provision from the fiscal 2017 budget he signed, seeking to give MBTA management a freer hand in setting fares. The House and Senate rejected the governor’s amendment on Thursday and returned the legislation (H 4492) to him on Tuesday.
Baker has 10 days to review legislation on his desk, which means lawmakers would have the time to vote on a potential veto before formal sessions end for the year on July 31.
The House has not taken a recorded vote on the new fare cap, which was added to the budget by the Senate. The Senate rejected the governor’s amendment 30-10 and the House rejected it on a voice vote.
To override a gubernatorial veto, two thirds of members voting in the 160-member House and two thirds of those voting in the 40-member Senate have to support the override on a recorded vote.
Caps on fare hikes have been the subject of contention between the House, Senate and administration over the past year.
Members of both branches had disagreed over interpretation of a 2013 law with top senators arguing it was intended to cap fare hikes at 5 percent every two years and the House’s Transportation Committee chairman siding with the Baker administration’s reading that it capped fare hikes at 10 percent every two years.
In prior years, Metro Boston transit commuters rode out steep spikes in fares followed by years when costs remained unchanged. The 2013 law was passed after fares went up an average of 23 percent in 2012. Two years later they were increased 5 percent, and in July they went up an average of 9.3 percent.
The price difference among individual fares and passes varied within this year’s increase. The cost of a regular monthly subway pass rose more than 12 percent, while the cash fare for a bus dropped 10 cents.
The governor’s amendment would have freed the MBTA to continue raising different fares by varying amounts as long as on average it came in under the 7 percent cap. The Legislature instead sent back legislation creating a hard cap of 7 percent on every fare.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation, led by Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, pointed to the groups spared by this year’s fare hikes even as the T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB) raised rates an average of 9.3 percent.
“Just as the FMCB approved a series of fare changes earlier this year that included reducing cash fares for local bus rides and increasing the availability of student passes, while raising other fares, the language would preserve the MBTA’s ability to make offsetting adjustments across multiple modes or fare products within the authority granted by the Legislature,” the department said in a statement.
Four Democrats joined all six Republicans in the Senate voting with Baker last week.
Baker, who said over the weekend that he’s “not been happy with virtually anything associated with the overall performance of the MBTA,” plans to update the press Wednesday on the one-year anniversary of the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board’s creation.
According to the governor’s office, his remarks will focus on “the issues that have been learned or discovered, what has been done to date and the work that lies ahead on delivering the reliable and accountable public transit system that riders and taxpayers deserve.”
An 11 a.m. press conference on Wednesday is planned in Room 157 where Baker will be joined by Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, MBTA Chief Administrator and General Manager Brian Shortsleeve and chief operating officer Jeff Gonneville.
Baker, who said over the weekend that he’s “not been happy with
virtually anything associated with the overall performance of the MBTA,”
Charlie, you became Governor because you wanted the job. Instead of pushing to someone else, It is time to own up and deal with it.