A tax increase to help fix Greater Boston's crippled mass transit system is not in the works, said Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker.
"The thing I find so disappointing about this is everybody just says: We should raise taxes," Baker said Feb. 19 on Boston public radio station WGBH. "They don't look at the fact that no mass transit system in the United States has grown faster than ours has over the course of the past 15 years in a marketplace where the population basically hasn't changed very much at all."
A series of blizzards and subfreezing weather has forced shutdowns and major delays on subways and commuter rail lines run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, a unit of the state's Department of Transportation. Besieged MBTA general manager Beverly Scott will resign in April.
Baker, a Republican who took office in January, campaigned on a no-tax-hike theme last year.
He also supported the ballot initiative that voters passed in November, which negated automatic increases in the gas tax, indexed to inflation. Transit advocates have estimated the loss of transportation-dedicated revenue at $1 billion over 10 years.
