Great perspectives on the transportation funding challenge

Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance: “Half a loaf: the Legislature’s transportation plan”
“I believed that we had the chance to set a visionary course for a post-Big Dig transportation system. It’s like having the opportunity to invest in an exciting new business, but instead you just pay off one of your credit cards.”
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center: “The Joint Ways & Means Transportation Proposal”
Conservation Law Foundation: “MA Transportation Funding Framework: More (or really less) to the supposedly budget-minded proposal than meets the eye”
“The framework would not cover the maintenance of our transportation system, nor keep it in a state of good repair, let alone allow for any investment in modernization.”
CommonWealth Magazine: “Fear and loathing on the tax trail”
“Census data show that, as a share of their income, Massachusetts residents pay an exceedingly average tax bill. The Bay State’s overall tax bill falls squarely in the middle of the 50 states.”
State Senator Pat Jehlen’s newsletter
“I believe the Green Line Extension will be built anyway because it is legally required under the legal agreement between the state and Conservation Law Foundation to mitigate the Big Dig, and under the State Improvement Plan which is enforceable by the federal government under the Clean Air Act. But if we don’t have an adequate plan to get to a state of good repair, the federal government will turn down our application for $550 million in federal New Starts money. As I told the Globe, that will leave the state to pick up the whole $1.3 billion tab, leaving little for other projects or other needed repairs.”