As difficult as this past year has been, it would have been worse without the more than $70 billion in federal relief to Massachusetts so far from just the first five of the COVID-19 federal relief bills. About $39 billion in federal dollars goes directly to individuals and businesses, through stimulus checks and programs like …
Where’s the Relief? The Distribution of Federal Funding in Massachusetts Read More »
Eliminating fares on Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and Regional Transit Authority (RTA) buses makes sense for practical economic reasons as well as for equity and environmental sustainability. The resources spent collecting bus fares don’t serve any transportation function. Selling bus passes and tickets, verifying and collecting them, and enforcing fare payments do not help …
Transit fares deepen existing income inequalities and racial disparities. Transit riders tend to have lower-than average incomes, especially bus riders. Black and Latinx residents are also more likely to be transit riders than white residents, again especially on buses. Enforcement of fare policies, such as through arrests and citations, also tends to impact people of …
There are many reasons to eliminate transit fares, especially on buses. In addition to advancing equity and reducing climate change emissions, fare-free service is more efficient, faster, and more convenient. Eliminating fares also increases transit ridership and helps stimulate the local economy. The major rationale for continuing to require fares is that officials have become …
In addition to being more efficient and equitable, eliminating bus fares would benefit the climate. The transportation sector is the biggest and fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts, and personal vehicles are responsible for the majority of those emissions. Transportation accounted for 42 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts in 2017, the …
Freeing the Climate: Environmental Benefits of Eliminating Transit Fares Read More »
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Click here for a PDF version of this statement. S.D. 172, “An act providing financial relief to small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic”, is bad fiscal policy, bad economic policy, bad social policy and bad tax policy. Moreover, the problem that supporters of S.D. 172 argue must be fixed doesn’t actually exist. PPP loans were …
Massachusetts Should Prohibit “Double-Dip” Tax Break for Profitable Businesses Read More »
1. How will the state generate enough revenue to meet everyone’s needs? Before state lawmakers even begin creating a budget, they need to determine how much money the state will likely collect for that fiscal year. For FY 2022, state leaders now estimate Massachusetts will bring in $30.12 billion in tax revenue, which is a …
Many Massachusetts businesses today owe their survival in part to UI sustaining customers’ demand for products and services. Over the years, even though the UI system funding has run low, legislators have repeatedly waived rules requiring employers to increase their payroll contributions. The state has had to borrow from the federal UI Trust Fund which …
As a Commonwealth, we must respond to these intertwined health and economic crises in ways that acknowledge and correct for these deep-seated and longstanding inequities. Raising additional revenue through rate increases on unearned income would help the Commonwealth address the immediate harms of the pandemic, as well as make the investments that will speed us …