I love that this photo of The Ride is RIGHT in front of the State House. After all, it was the State House, both the Executive and the legislature, jointly, who dumped the Big Dig debt resulting from the Beacon Hill/Crony Capitalist Alliance onto the Big Dig to avoid a transparent line item showing the costs of incompetence and corruption.
Now, the MBTA proposes to balance its books on the backs of the powerless and disabled rather than demanding that Beacon Hill take back its garbage aka Big Dig Debt.
According to Jeremy Thompson, who spoke at Occupy Somerville’s MBTA Forum on March 8, 2012, after he described the MBTA’s dire fiscal situation ($5.2 billion of debt; $440 million in annual debt service; and a $160 million deficit for the coming year), Thompson outlined the MBTA’s two proposals to balance its budget for next year with a mix of devastating layoffs, service cuts, and fare increases. Thompson demonstrated that, under either proposal, it is those who can afford it the least who are being asked to pay the most. For example, under the MBTA’s Scenario 1, the top 8 fare hikes hit seniors, students and the disabled “Who pays” looks like this:
Service Fare Increases
THE RIDE – Premium Service Area 500%
Senior/TAP Local Bus 175%
Senior/TAP Rapid Transit 150%
THE RIDE – ADA Service Area 125%
Senior/TAP LinkPass 100%
Student LinkPass 100%
Student Local Bus 83%
Student Rapid Transit 76%
Renegotiation of bank debt 0.0%
Return of Big Dig debt to to Beacon Hill with line item 0.0%
Similarly, under the MBTA’s Scenario 2, seniors, students and the disabled will pay the six biggest fare increases. Thompson also noted that the proposed service cuts will disproportionately affect those who either cannot afford a car or are physically unable to drive. Students, the disabled, and those too poor to afford a car don’t make campaign donations, and they don’t have lobbyists either.
All the disabled and students have to stand up for them publicly and at the State House are Occupy the MBTA and Occupy Boston, it seems. No surprise that major protests are planned with the next protest being on March 14, 2012 at the Transportation Building at 10 Park Street at 12:30 PM – see the Occupy the MBTA website http://occupymbta.org/2012/03/07/protest-mbta-fare-hikes-service-cuts-layoffs-on-march-14/
Also, MBTA debt has been driven up by being locked in to [Arrrgh Maties] piratical debt swaps. Remember them?
Frankly, we’ve been robbed and it is time for someone to have the guts on Beacon Hill to take the Big Dig debt vampire off the throat of the MBTA.
