BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - A new proposal is calling for a regional payroll tax and a tax on miles motorists drive to help pay for the MBTA. The MassINC report finds the MBTA's current reliance on the state sales and gas taxes are just not enough to keep the aging system going. State and local transportation leaders are meeting Wednesday to discuss the T's troubled finances. "This uneven balance has eroded support for regional investment at a time when these areas need it the most," said Benjamin Forman, MassINC Research Director. "Investment patterns around the country show that regions are advancing public transportation infrastructure projects as catalysts for private development and overall economic growth, yet in Massachusetts those much-needed investments are being stalled or abandoned because their revenue foundation is not working as it should," he said.
Interesting, interesting. Decent proposal, but have you considered, NO WAY IN FUCKING HELL!
Are you guys freaking kidding me? So instead of cutting expense and raising the rates for the actual users of the MTBA, you'd rather further subsidize your system by taxing everyone else? No way, nah-uh. Do the 99% know about this? Because this is the shit they should be protesting...I may have to get down there tomorrow and start my own fringe movement if they're not on top of this.
As a driver I paid sales tax on my auto and continue to pay gas tax every time I fill up to help support this poorly run system that I hardly ever use. I refuse to pay more...I also pay tolls and a yearly excise tax for the priveledge of using the state's infrastructure, roads, bridges, tunnels, etc...Maybe a yearly ridership tax on the T? Maybe charge all riders, even the ones who hop on the bus or get on the Green Line at one of the above ground stops.
And on top of that, payroll taxes on businesses? When the rest of the country is clammoring for a reduction in payroll taxes? Again, are you freaking kidding me? Unemployment is at an all time high, businesses just flat out aren't hiring, and your solution is to penalize them further for putting someone to work? Talk about out of touch. That's perhaps the worst bureaucratic idea I've heard this year. The worst
Or maybe, just maybe, you get the government hackery under control, stop the appointment of any new directors or board members as a "thanks" from friends in political office and undertake the process of trimming the fat via bloated pensions.
If you can't figure out how to run this efficiently as a business by providing a service and charging your customers an appropriate amount for that service, then you don't deserve to be running the system. Plain and simple. Sell the MBTA. Let some private company come in here, cut waste, increase efficiency (for instance when a driver is caught red handed under performing on the job or blatantly putting the lives of its riders in danger, a private company would fire that employee, not spend months debating the merits of their employment). If all else fails, sell it. Let it be a private system. Sell it for .50 cents on the dollar and be done with it. Because I do not want to support this incredibly poorly run, failing system a day longer. Just cut the shit
