Hey everyone —
I’m so riled up about what’s going on at the MBTA — and how easy it would be to solve this problem by asking our politicians to make one grown-up decision — that I’ve gone and done something that I’ve never done before…. started a petition.
If you agree with me — that Beacon Hill, who caused this problem by dropping $2 billion in Big Dig debt on the MBTA, should have to fix it, please sign.
My goal is to get 500 signatures to start with, and then we can see where things go from there… so please sign!
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Let’s talk some numbers, to show why this is important:
The MBTA has 1.349 million daily riders, as of September of last year. They are at modern-day record highs, as more and more people in the Commonwealth have been turning toward public transportation.
Moreover, ridership is quickly growing and there’s no reason to expect that growth to slow anytime soon — so long as there’s no draconian service cuts and fare hikes.
The big areas that are being penned for cuts are used by hundreds of thousands of people, including 400,000 daily users on the MBTA’s bus routes and over 130,000 on the commuter rail. Even the oft-derided ferries, just .41% of the MBTA’s ridership, has over a million rides a year.
Here’s the damage: Plan 1’s service cuts would “effect” (euphemism for shutting down) 9.6 million riders a year, including cutting off all weekend commuter rail to save a measly $5.7 million bucks, while Plan 2 would similarly “effect” a whopping 38.1 million riders.
That doesn’t count how many rides would be “effected” by Plan 1’s 43% or Plan 2’s 35% fare hikes.
All of that to fill up the $161 million deficit — a deficit derived from the $2 billion in Big Dig debt Beacon Hill threw on the back of the MBTA.
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Of course, there’s a much easier and painless way to come up with the money to plug the hole at the MBTA: Divert the state’s spending on the Film Tax Credit, which the state spent $146 million on last year, to MBTA debt relief.
The Department of Revenue’s report, as mentioned in my last diary on this topic, was merciless on the Film Tax Credit. Not only does it not help our state grow jobs, but because that money could be spent much wiser, we actually lose jobs because of it.
Some dead-enders are clinging to the notion that the Film Tax Credit is like spending money on advertising, helping out the state’s tourism industry… and that’s why those poor schmucks in the Metro Region who can’t afford a BMW to get into town every day should suffer.
Beyond the fact that it may not help Massachusetts to advertise us as the worldwide hub of heroine addicts, bank robbers and the Irish mafia, I have a question to ask:
What do you think the state’s museums, restaurants, clubs and stores — you know, the tourism industry — think is more important to their bottom line? The millions of people who use the MBTA every day, or the tangential vibes (good or bad) of the city people may or may not get from a few extra movies being filmed in Massachusetts?
Are more people going to go to out to the North End, shop on Newbury Street or go see the Bruins because Ben Affleck made a film in Charlestown, or because they had an easy and cheap way to get into town that saved surburbanites too terrified from driving in Boston — or paying the, what is it? $40? — to park here on a game night?
So, let’s lay the “tourism” thing to bed. The MBTA is far more important to tourism than Film Tax Credits, and that’s not even getting into the fact that the Film Tax Credit is a jobs killer, according to the state’s own numbers.
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Finally, some of you may be asking me, “Ryan, why put the Film Tax Credit in contention with the MBTA? What does one have to do with the other?”
Beyond the fact that the money at play here alone is enough to almost fully plug the MBTA’s hole, there’s also the strategy involved. How people will feel about the MBTA will largely depend on what question is asked.
If people are asked, “Should the state save the MBTA?” the answer may not be very clear.
People may want to save it, but if they don’t use it every day, it’s easy to muddle up the question. After all, the government is a huge, monolithic thing, too large and confusing to expect people to know a nuanced approach out of a government mess.
Suddenly, in people’s heads, the question may not be “Should we save the MBTA,” but rather, “What else should be cut?” People will quickly think of their schools, or roads or other government services, or taxes having to be raised, even if that’s not what this is about.
That makes it all the more convenient for a politician to say, “Gee, I really wish we could help, but our budget is brutal… so the MBTA has to go out on its own.”
Politicians who don’t like doing the right thing love how monolithic government is, because they can blame their failure to do something that isn’t really a priority to them on any number of other issues… instead of themselves.
That’s pretty much what the Speaker is saying right now.
However, all of that changes when we change the question. If the question is, “What’s more important, Film Tax Credits that don’t grow jobs, or the MBTA… which our entire state depends on for jobs, and the basic necessity of getting from Point A to Point B?”
We’re going to get a very different answer.
That’s why it’s critically important to de-clutter this issue, creating an easy and easy-to-understand choice that reflects the real stakes here and gets at the values of our Commonwealth.
Do we want to grow jobs and help the millions of people who depend on the MBTA every day, or do we want to give Hollywood hundreds of millions in corporate welfare? Are we for the people, or are we for Hollywood studios?
The answer will be clear — and the MBTA will win. Maybe… for once… we just may be able to do something decent in this world.
So, start asking your friends, neighbors, coworkers… and politicians. Email the petition to your friends. Post it on Facebook and Twitter. And, for heaven’s sake, sign it.
Let’s make this happen!
This video’s good. Send it to your friends, as you send them the petition!
I’m not objective, but I tend to think the movie experiment hasn’t fully played itself out. I’m in favor of changing the deal, because it’s overly generous or has become so.
I wholeheartedly agree about the problem though. The state budget is $25 billion or so. Fix the T.
If Beacon Hill decided that they were going to reform the Film Tax Credit as part of a wide net of reforms on other wasteful spending (and when it comes to the tax credits, there’s plenty to choose from, with well over a billion in tax credit expenditures), then I’d consider it a victory.
I just think it serves us all well to have a linchpin issue to rally around, so we don’t see powerful members of government resort to suggesting there’s no way they can save the MBTA within the confines of the state budget and that the MBTA has to go it alone.
Personally, I’d like to see the state do a mix of different policies to properly support public transit and all transportation spending. We have a $20 billion backlog of projects that needs done and we aren’t touching that issue with a ten foot stick.
I just think the reforming the way we do tax credits, especially the Film Tax Credit, has to be a part of that solution, because it’s one of the few areas of government where a lot of money that’s — by the DOR”s numbers — inefficiently spent, and the scope of the entire transportation problem (of which the MBTA is only one part) is too large to just tax ourselves out of it, though I think increased revenue will eventually have to be a part of the solution, too.
Although I’m not convinced that the film credit is the best poster child of squandered tax expenditure. As a small business owner I’ve definitely benefited from the boost in film production (I’m talking direct money, not “brokered benefits”).
We’re just starting a conversation here.
The money is close to identical, the tax credit tangibly effects few Massachusetts citizens, does help to fund out-of-state and wealth individuals and organizations, and so forth.
Even if this were done in conjunction with a more modest fare increase this year — as well as scheduled 2.5% fare increases [rounded to the nearest nickel] for each of the next 10 years, it would go a long way toward paying down some of the legacy debt. It wouldn’t solve the problem, but it would mean the water coming in the boat would become less than the water being bailed out of the boat for the next few (10?) years. It could give time for the state to figure out how to fund the T in the future…
I see it as exactly as you do. It’s hard to solve any big problem in one measure, but this solves the immediate need and goes a large way toward solving the long-term problem. If Beacon Hill sees this and even decides to make some reforms to tax credits in general, funneling that money toward the MBTA… because it’s a better creator of jobs (private sector and otherwise)… then I’m happy.
Not sure if you’ve already done so, but I hope you’ll sign and email it to some of your friends and any MBTA riders you know.
Glad to see this on my facebook page as well. Hey – online activity like this made BOA back off and the Komen foundation too – maybe there is sense, even if not openness, left on Beacon Hill? We shall see.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you for taking this terrific step! I signed the petition and forwarded to dozens of contacts.
This is what I’ve been saying for years: Corporate welfare is our biggest, and most secretive, financial hemorrhage. It is totally useless and for the most part, undisclosed and unaccountable — and the legislature refuses to pass bills that would even reveal who’s getting what and if there is any impact! That indicates the extent of the political corruption underlying this crony capitalism.
We lose over $2 billion a year in business “tax expenditures.” And then there are the “incentive packages” and “job creation” and “blight prevention” subsidies and other bogus excuses for giving away our money. In addition to the film tax credit, mutual fund companies, mainly Fidelity Investments, get $150 million a year — for nothing at all. Developers, too, get huge amounts of public subsidy. Evergreen Solar, now defunct, got about $70 million. Bristol-Myers Squibb got $60 million. Joe Fallon’s development company and his tenant, Vertex Pharma, just got $110 million (including bond interest), plus another $12 m from the City of Boston. Liberty Mutual just got $22.5 m, plus another $24 m from the City of Boston. JP Morgan got $4 m from state and City. And then there’s the Greenway Conservancy — that boondoggle, recently exposed by the Boston Herald, has already gotten over $16 m from the state, and there’s no end in sight. And these are just a few examples.
We could have all the public services we need without pitting one against the other. The public realm could be a palace of the people, if we spent all the money we take from taxpayers on proper public services. Let the “free market” fund businesses, and let the government provide public services.
We should demand full transparency for every dime given to every business. When all that information is out, the way forward will become very clear.
NStar was doing just fine meeting it’s renewable energy obligations buying power on the spot market (primarily Canadian Hydro power). But now, NStar rate payers will be on the hook for buying hundreds of millions of wildly overpriced power (approximately 3x the price) from Cape Wind. Ah, crony capitalism at it’s finest.