MBTA officials eye parking lot revenue
The MBTA’s top official is urging the agency’s board to delay any fare hikes until the summer of 2019, but commuters could still face higher fees at some T parking lots far sooner.
Staring down a $100 million budget gap, members of the T’s Fiscal & Management Control Board aren’t ruling out fare hikes in January despite General Manager Luis Ramirez’s recommendation that
“we start this process next year” and push any potential hike to July 2019, for the start of the following fiscal year.
“The first priority is to make sure we are able to do it in a way that actually makes sense,” Ramirez told reporters after the board meeting. He and other T staff warned against hiking fares in the middle of winter, when they’re dealing with other weather-related issues.
“It’s a very old system,” he said of the T’s current fare collection system, noting last time, in July 2016, the change “caused a lot of (technical) issues.”
The T last hiked fares in July 2016 by an average of 9.3 percent, and at the time pledged not to raise them again until at least January 2019. Officials say any hike this time could generate up to $15 million over the second half of next fiscal year — revenue some on the board didn’t want to dismiss ahead of finalizing its budget next month.
T officials are also looking at four different options for raising parking revenue, which together could generate $12 million. They include an acrossthe-board $1 hike, or using dynamic pricing, in which they’d raise prices in congested garage lots and lower them in underutilized ones.
Paul Regan, director of the T Advisory Board, said parking rates haven’t been raised in 10 years, making them ripe for change. But he said officials need to be cautious because after the 2008 hikes commuters “voted with their feet.”
“Parking revenues went up and utilization went down,” he said. “It’s commuter rail (lots) that drop right off.”
Gov. Charlie Baker, whose re-election bid this year could hinge on reforms his administration has pushed at the T, deferred to Ramirez and the agency yesterday, saying any move to hike fares is “up to them to pursue.”
“I haven’t talked to him about it, if that’s what you mean,” Baker said when pressed if he agreed with Ramirez on delaying any hikes. “He’s closer to the data and the numbers than I am.”
Board member Brian Lang said he’s “not advocating for a fare increase.” But, he added, “there’s a lot of moving pieces here, and this is one of them. I wouldn’t take it off the table.”
Steve Poftak, another board member, noted there’s no guarantee a proposal to move some workers’ salaries into capital expenses — saving $27 million from the operating budget — will pass the state Legislature.
But he acknowledged that decision may not be made until early July, adding: “I’m loathe to take any revenue options off the table at this point.”