MA House Budget: $0 for East-West Rail in FY24
In April the Massachusetts House of Representatives eliminated Gov. Healey’s proposed $12.5 million for East-West rail from its budget.
Instead the House Budget includes the following:
- $100 million for MBTA bridge work;
- $100 million for MBTA station improvements;
- $39 million for MBTA subway track and signal work;
- $11 million for design of the red-blue connector.
That’s a whopping $250 million for MBTA infrastructure and capital investments.
The House of Representatives passed its version of the budget without opposition.
Meanwhile the four counties of Western Massachusetts continue a long-term economic decline exacerbated by the vast inequity in the Commonwealth’s spending on transportation and infrastructure.
This post features a graphic from the report Public Infrastructure in Western Massachusetts: A Critical Need for Regional Investment and Revitalization. “As shown…in Figure 8, between FY 2011 and FY 2021, the four westernmost counties’ cumulative growth was not even close to that of similarly populated counties in the eastern part of the Commonwealth. Importantly, this figure does not include the close to $1 billion in new growth that Springfield (Hampden County) could add from its casino, if it did not have a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement in place, thus removing that property from the tax rolls. Even with that billion dollars included, the western counties would still remain $1.1 billion below Essex County in cumulative new growth.”
Please keep this East-West divide in mind as the Massachusetts Legislature continues to craft an FY24 budget that does not include money for East-West rail.
During May the Senate will draft, debate, and pass its own version of the FY24 budget.
Here’s the entire Transportation section of the House’s FY24 budget proposal —
