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Comparing MBTA Budget Challenges

By Anonymous on Wed, 09/23/2015 - 12:47am

bostonglobe:

MBTA fiscal control board report cites ‘deep-seated’ problems
Says woes deeper than was thought

The board that oversees the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority says the agency’s problems are even more “serious and deep-seated” than a previous panel had discovered earlier this year, according to the board’s first report to the Legislature.

The report released on Tuesday is a bleak assessment of the T, summarizing the board’s findings since it first began meeting in July. Those disclosures, many of which were previously made public, include:

- The T’s annual operating budget is “unsustainable,” and could lead to a $427 million budget gap by 2020 if officials do not address the rate of growth. [...]

- Absences by drivers are the leading reason for lost bus, subway, and trolley trips. Absences also account for $14 million of $53 million in overtime spent during the 2015 fiscal year.

Neighborhoods: 
Boston
Topics: 
The T


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Comments

By Anon on Thu, 09/24/2015 - 10:53am.

Here's an oversimplification:

If every municipality in the "Commonwealth" chipped in, it would only cost each of them $19,943,020 to pay off this backlog and allow the MBTA to start fresh.

How to get that? Another oversimplification, but:

Take that total per municipality, tack on 10%, divide by 30 years and you now have ~ $731,000 per year. Sell enough municipal bonds with a 30-year maturity payout of 5%, the municipality keeps the other 5%, and now the crippling backlog monetary cost is resolved.

This thought exercise doesn't address the time cost, but I leave that exercise for somebody else.

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