Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker named Northeastern University policy wonk and transit advocate Stephanie Pollack as secretary of transportation.
Pollack, of Newton, will oversee transportation and related infrastructure at a critical juncture for the commonwealth, given the scrutiny of Boston's bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, and ongoing Boston-area transit-line expansion.
Baker's appointment surprised some observers, given that Pollack favors raising the gas tax, which Baker opposes. Baker, a Republican, also opposes higher tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike. State voters in November repealed an automatic indexing of the gas tax to the Consumer Price Index, which passed two years ago. Officials have estimated the repeal could cost Massachusetts about $1 billion over 10 years.
"Stephanie's vast experience in infrastructure and policy development will help our administration to be forward-thinking as we look for more innovative ways to meet the transportation needs in every region of the commonwealth," Baker said of Pollack, an associate director for research at Northeastern's Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy for nine years. Some of Pollack's former students will join her as policy professionals, Northeastern said in a statement.
Kristina Egan, the director of the advocacy group Transportation for Massachusetts, said Pollack "has a deserved reputation as a well-respected expert in transportation finance."
Egan's organization called 2015 a critical year for Massachusetts. It cited pending reports on project selection criteria and long-range MBTA planning, P3 growth and the implementation of a new integrated asset management system for transportation infrastructure.
Pollack's Department of Transportation has overseen the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the mass transit system that serves the Boston area, since 2009. The overhaul law passed that year also folded Massachusetts Turnpike and Massachusetts Port Authority operations into MassDOT and moved MBTA's employees into a different health plan as a cost-saving measure. It also ended the authority's "21 and out" retirement policy.
Another law that passed in 2013 dedicated new revenue to transportation and eliminated bonding to pay for employees' salaries.
The MBTA earlier this month received a $996 million federal grant to extend the Green Line streetcar route north of Boston. Moody's Investors Service called the move a credit positive because it relieves pressure on the commonwealth to borrow more to finance the $2 billion project.
