Officials last week cut the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s fiscal 2010 budget by $160 million to balance the spending plan.
The MBTA’s advisory board approved roughly 1,200 of layoffs, benefit cuts, and reductions in supplies and services to generate $160 million of savings as the authority has yet to receive an anticipated bailout from Massachusetts’ legislature, according to a board report.
In mid-March, the MBTA board approved a $1.62 billion budget for fiscal 2010, which begins July 1, with a $160 million shortfall as the authority expected lawmakers to help fill that deficit by the end of June.
Both the House and the Senate approved fiscal 2010 state budgets that include increasing the commonwealth’s 5% sales tax to 6.25%, which would generate $275 million of additional revenue for transportation needs. Legislators are now working on a joint budget.
If the state offers the MBTA additional revenue, the authority could submit supplemental budgets that would potentially rescind all or a portion of the advisory board’s cuts.
Budget challenges for the MBTA include rising debt service costs, including lease payments, which will jump by $77.5 million, or 21%, to $445.2 million in fiscal 2010 from the current fiscal year.
“The MBTA will pay over 30% of all its revenue for debt service, double the percentage of its closest competitor and three times the average what its peers pay,” according to the advisory board report.
The MBTA, which oversees mass transit systems in the greater Boston area, isn’t the only transportation agency in need of state aid. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is looking to gain $100 million from the commonwealth to avoid a July 1 toll increase.
