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Articles by Lucas Peilert
State toll revenue getting back to pre-COVID levels
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE STATE HIGHWAY system is bringing in nearly as much money from tolls as it did before the COVID-19 pandemic hit three years ago. The Department of Transportation collected $215.9 million from motorists using tolled roads in the first two quarters of fiscal 2023, only $5 million less than the same span in fiscal 2019, the last full budget cycle before the public health emergency upended life and rewired work and travel patterns.
Campbell joins lawsuit opposing JetBlue purchase of Spirit
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ATTORNEY GENERAL Andrea Campbell is jumping into the effort to halt JetBlue's proposed acquisition of Spirit Airlines, calling it an "anticompetitive deal" and predicting it will reduce consumer choices. Campbell's office on Tuesday afternoon said it was joining the US Justice Department and the attorneys general of New York and the District of Columbia in a suit filed in federal district court in Boston.
Chamber chief to T: You get what you pay for
JIM ROONEY, the president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, is encouraging the MBTA to pay top dollar for its next general manager and do everything it can to keep the interim GM at the agency. Rooney, a former T general manager himself, said landing the agency's next general manager will require base compensation in the range of $450,000 to $500,000 a year, roughly $100,000 more than what the T paid former general manager Steve Poftak.
Healey budget moves means-tested fares off back burner
AN MBTA means-tested fare seems to be getting on track on Beacon Hill with the Healey administration's decision to include $5 million for the initiative in its budget proposal for fiscal 2024. The Legislature in 2019 approved a lower fare pilot for income-qualifying residents, but former governor Charlie Baker vetoed the measure because it didn't identify a revenue source for the ongoing costs. Now, with Healey showing interest, the measure once again has some momentum.
MBTA to remove some panels at Harvard Station
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MBTA STAFF will remove ceiling panels at Harvard Station after a corroded panel fell about 10 feet and landed "very close to a customer," interim General Manager Jeff Gonneville said Friday. Gonneville said staff and engineers determined that the aluminum panel weighing 20 to 25 pounds "failed because of corrosion," likely inflicted by water, causing it to drop onto the Red Line platform Wednesday afternoon.
State board approves controversial Worcester charter school proposal
A SPLIT Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a controversial new charter school in Worcester on Tuesday - the first new charter given the go-ahead during Commissioner of Education Jeff Riley's five-year tenure.
Drinks to Go should go
"DRINKS TO GO" was never intended to last longer than a few months. To the dismay of many, the emergency provisions have been extended by the Legislature for three years. Now lobbying groups are again seeking to persuade the Massachusetts Legislature to extend or make permanent the temporary emergency provisions that were hastily enacted during the pandemic.
Fight over millionaire tax shifts to new arena
It took eight years for the state's unions to win passage of a constitutional amendment assessing a 4 percent surcharge on income over $1 million. And as soon as voters gave their approval in November, business groups began lobbying for tax breaks to offset the impact of the millionaire tax using many of the same arguments that surfaced during the years-long campaign. Making Massachusetts more competitive was a central theme.
Congestion pricing - a tool that can solve many transportation problems - CommonWealth Magazine
IN ADDITION to ranking among the worst cities for traffic, economic inequality, and housing costs, Boston holds another ignominious distinction: we're the largest US metro area not using dynamic tolls to reduce congestion on our highways (Mass Pike tolls don't count, since they don't change throughout the day). Dynamic tolling is a form of congestion pricing, and both concepts are undergirded by the same principle: when roads are free, people don't use them efficiently.
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