The real takeaway from this week’s debacle, in my view, is the enormous tax increase (probably billions of dollars) that Massachusetts government imposed on residents and businesses this week without debate, discussion, or even media coverage. What, you didn’t hear about it? Of course not.
I’m talking about the billions of dollars taken from residents and businesses in the form of lost wages and lost business as a result of DAYS of MBTA collapse after a typical Massachusetts winter storm (with several more already in the pipeline for the next week or two).
My company, headquartered in Austin TX and with a Boston team of about a dozen employees, canceled our regular Wednesday face-to-face workday on Newbury Street (we rent shared office space one day a week). We did that because all of us depend on the MBTA. Even if we wanted to drive (which we don’t), there is no parking. And, of course, the parade puts the icing on the cake. So our team will not buy lunch today in a Newbury Street restaurant. We will not stop to pick anything up at CVS on our way to or from work. We will not pick up coffee in the morning or libations after work. This, after missing last week because of the blizzard. We are reconsidering whether it makes sense to continue renting space that we cannot use (we already telecommute the rest of the week).
I suggest that my team’s reaction is reasonably typical. We are watching Boston commit suicide, by making it impossible to do business in the city. The question, in my view, is whether Beacon Hill can and will respond in time to save it.
Here is the text of this morning’s (4-Feb-2015) MBTA “Severe Weather Update” (body emphasis mine):
What to expect when winter weather hits.
While service has improved since yesterday, please expect impacts to service on Wednesday, February 4, 2015, on all subway and Commuter Rail lines. Decades-old equipment may experience mechanical issues. Switches and signals may also be adversely affected by frigid temperatures. Passengers utilizing MBTA service to and from the Patriots’ Parade should visit our events page for more details.
Buses will continue to replace Mattapan Trolley service between Ashmont and Mattapan stations from start to end of service on Wednesday, February 4, 2015. Because RIDE service will be affected by road conditions, paratransit customers are urged to stay in contact with their specific service provider.
Please expect longer wait times, plan for extra travel time, and dress appropriately. We encourage customers to check for the most current service information before starting their commutes. Service information can be found at the MBTA’s winter resource hub: mbta.com/winter. Customers are also urged to check T-Alerts regularly for updates or to join our nearly 99,000 followers on Twitter @MBTA. For Commuter Rail updates, we ask commuters to follow the MBTA Commuter Rail on Twitter @MBTA_CR.
The levels of accumulated snowfall will make it difficult for customers to maneuver their vehicles around MBTA parking lots, particularly in the afternoon and evening. Work crews will try very hard to keep the lots’ travel lanes and exits clear, but heavy snow will accumulate in the immediate areas around vehicles occupying spaces. Customers are strongly encouraged to consider these factors if using MBTA parking lots on Wednesday. The Commuter Rail parking garage at Beverly Station is near capacity. Please plan your alternative parking arrangements accordingly.
We thank our loyal customers for their patience and understanding.
Updated: 6 a.m., Feb 4, 2015
I note that at 8:30a, the “alerts” link reports that ALL subway lines — blue, green, orange, and red — are “experiencing delays”.
This is two days after a run-of-the-mill (for Boston) January snowstorm.
Our legislators, on both sides of the aisle, say we “can’t afford” the taxes needed to put the MBTA back onto a reliable and sustainable footing. Funny how nobody wants to talk about the actual cost of the resulting inaction. I hope that somebody is crunching the numbers — I’m guessing we are, together, spending up to ten times as much to NOT fix the MBTA as we would have invested if Governor Patrick’s 2012 proposal had been approved.
Of course, we now have to do BOTH — we have to invest in solving the problem, and we have to pay the price for NOT investing earlier. This is precisely the same combination that makes using credit cards to pay regular bills so destructive. Eventually, the family hits the credit limit. The bills must still be paid, and debt service on the maxed-out credit line is added to that burden. We Democrats chose to do nothing and say nothing during the recent gubernatorial campaign (is this an exquisitely subtle plan to embarrass the incoming Baker administration?).
Will we who still have absolute control over the legislature actually DO anything to address this problem?
Or will we continue to party on with Super Bowl parades and Olympic fantasies?
No one wants to pay for what things cost and things are expensive here because everyone thinks they are worth more than they really are.
Political alignments are more a matter of fashion. Money grubbing trumps all else. Norquist has done a fine job of getting everyone to internalize his assumptions and preferences.
I agree.
That’s the irony, though — the path we are following is FAR more expensive than making the required investment in public transportation.
The difference, not surprisingly, is that the lion’s share of the burden of these new expenses falls on the working poor (those dependent on the T) and on the multitude of genuinely small business owners who suffer the most when workers simply can’t get into the city.
I doubt that this debacle cost Mr. Baker, Mr. DeLeo, or any of the big-money donors any money AT ALL. If these same dollars had come out of the pockets of those who fund the Pioneer institute or casinos, I suspect we’d be hearing a different song.
When somebody gets caught taking videos of women’s bloomers on a subway train, the legislature acts instantaneously to solve the problem. When a typical Boston snowstorm paralyzes the same system (and the city) for days, nothing can be done.
Priorities are, after all, priorities.
An enlightened culture would make sober and rational cost/benefit assessments and act accordingly. I hear it’s done that way in Scandinavia.
But this place is afflicted with unusual cravenness and avarice. People really do believe in the something for nothing tooth fairy.
They really believe that casinos will be a revenue fix. They really believe that sandbagging everything until it collapses is thrifty.
It is a go go economy bubble zone. The rest of the state is more like the rest of the country. And this feeds their resentment of the glitz fest here.
Oddly, Rosenberg is originally from Revere, so you think he’d at least be familiar with the drill but he has to pander to his disgruntled voters and pretend to play hardball with those Boston spendthrifts.
Hysterical hyperbole. Cite your source that the T being down equaled “BILLIONS!!!!” of lost wages and delayed business.
…bnetween a TAX and an EXPENSE.
I will buy you a dictionary for Christmas.
Ironically, there is an excellent chance that this is a tax CUT. I paid my staff for the snow days that we had to be closed and did not make them use vacation time – but many places that did not have that budgeted, and for those who are self-employed this means a loss of wages, upon which there will be no tax collected. And that means there will be a revenue shortfall next year, once again, this time for lost wages rather than lost jobs.
Whether it’s a “tax”, an “expense”, or a “fee”, it is imposed by government action and takes far more money out taxpayer pockets than Governor Patrick’s proposed 2012 plan. Of course, the Governor’s plan would have taken nearly all of that new tax, expense, or fee out of the wealthy. What our government did instead is take many times more money out of the already poor.
No amount of handwaving can obscure the reality of the actual impact of this policy on the population of the greater Boston area.
A few years ago they fixed the bridge. On a typical day four workers worked on it. Sometimes only two. For over a year the bridge was one lane. They put a temporary light up on either end. This added five minutes each way, everyday to my commute. Why couldn’t eight guys work on the bridge and get it done in half the time? 2500 (estimate) minutes over the course of a year was a huge tax on me.