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Gov. Healey unveils $8 billion spending proposal for Mass. transportation, a plan spanning 10 years

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced a massive transportation spending plan proposal while in Worcester Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. Encompassing three bills, including House 1, the Governor's budget proposal for FY26, the plan would set up an estimated $8 billion to be spent on transportation infrastructure over the span of a decade.
Office of Gov. Maura Healey
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Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced a massive transportation spending plan proposal while in Worcester Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. Encompassing three bills, including House 1, the Governor's budget proposal for FY26, the plan would set up an estimated $8 billion to be spent on transportation infrastructure over the span of a decade.

Calling it a “transformational” announcement, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has unveiled plans for a multi-billion dollar transportation investment plan.

Joined by a small army of state transportation and housing officials, plus local lawmakers in Worcester Tuesday, Healey unveiled a plan to shore up the MBTA while funding bridge, rail and road projects across the state.

“Our plan is to invest over $8 billion over the next 10 years to improve transportation in every corner of our state,” Healey said of the proposal at Union Station.

Speaking ahead of her State of the Commonwealth address, the governor outlined a spending proposal that would act on a number of recommendations made by a “Transportation Funding Task Force,” which issued a final report this month.

The report recommends everything from making an additional $500 million investment in bridge repairs to increasing investments in the state’s Chapter 90 local roads programs by at least 50 percent to stabilizing transit operating budgets – what with the MBTA facing projected budget shortfalls of $700-$900 million per year.

Unsurprisingly, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority was a big focus of Tuesday’s announcement.

“We're also getting close on the MBTA budget gap, and I'm really appreciative of this work,” the governor said. “There's been a lot of talk about the cliff that the T is facing, and it is real, and we've got a program and a proposal that is going to effectively close that gap, stabilize the T over the next several years.”

Via the governor’s proposals, pending approval from the legislature, the MBTA would see its operating budget double from $314 million to $687 million.

Surplus Fair Share Amendment revenue – money from a surtax on residents with an income over $1 million – would foot much of the bill, both moneys from last year and going forward.

Emphasizing the plan would not rely on new taxes, Healey's office says the surtax has been performing “exceedingly well,” leading to $2.46 billion being collected in FY24 – around $1.5 billion more than originally budgeted.

As explained by Secretary of Administration and Finance Matthew Gorzkowicz, Fair Share funds are a major component of the plan, including another facet involving the Commonwealth Transportation Fund.

“We will propose transferring $765 million from the Fair Share revenues in FY26 to the Commonwealth Transportation Fund, an increase of about $500 million over what we proposed last year,” he said. “This will allow us to do much more than just spend Fair Share dollars. We'll be able to borrow against those funds, yielding $5 billion over the next 10 years for capital investments and state and municipal roads, bridges and rail.”

While the MBTA appears to be at the center of the plan, which involves the Governor's FY26 budget proposal and a supplemental budget, Healey says she intends to also file a multi-year Chapter 90 bill with the intention of increasing road funding for cities and towns to $300 million per year, over a span of five years - an additional, annual $100 million investment.

MassDOT CEO and Secretary Monica Tibbets-Nut says regional transit authorities are also getting a boost.

“We are proposing more than $200 million for our RTAs. This funding will support fare free programs, connectivity projects and paratransit services for older adults and people with disabilities,” the Secretary stated. “Ultimately, it will ensure that transit remains equitable and accessible across the state.”

That includes $30 million for fare free service and $10 million for supporting interconnectivity between the state’s 15 RTAs.

West-East Rail also got a shoutout during the announcement, though how exactly it’s affected wasn’t immediately detailed.

In a news release, Healey’s office says the new funding will allow for infrastructure improvements and new cars and coaches for the MBTA and Commuter Rail ($1.4 billion worth of investments), but also “allow for projects advancing West-East Rail to continue to move forward, including capacity improvements near Pittsfield, trackwork and accessibility improvements in Springfield, and station planning in Palmer.”

Federal funding has been key to the projects so far, including $108 million for track reconfiguration in Springfield. Whether more will be coming in the next administration is no guarantee.