Dear members, Effective July 7, 2015, Governor Baker signed a $38 billion dollar budget in law, which included the relaxation of the Taxpayer Protection Act (TPA), otherwise known as the Pacheco Law, for three years. For those who were not able to attend our most recent membership meeting on Thursday, July 21, 2015, below is…
Boston Globe | By Sarah Roberts | August 12, 2015 Quick thinking and bold action were all in a day’s work for one MBTA bus driver who steered his bus into a car to slow it down and call for help when he saw that the driver was unconscious, MBTA Transit Police said. Paul Healy, 58,…
WBZ-TV | By Julie Loncich | July 17, 2015 BOSTON (CBS) – Four neighborhood kids got the thrill of their summer, thanks to a MBTA bus driver and his willing passengers. John Lohan was in mid-route on Centre Street in West Roxbury Thursday when he decided to stop. “I said if anyone is in a…
Boston Globe | By Jim O’Sullivan | July 17, 2015 AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman spoke at an MBTA union workers rally at the State House in May. Labor unions, stung by legislative maneuvering to ease privatization at the MBTA, are targeting top House Democrats, meeting privately to strategize, and discussing the possibility of running more pro-union candidates…
COFAR Blog | By David Kassel | July 13, 2015 In what has been widely viewed as a setback for state employee unions in Massachusetts, state legislators last week approved a state budget for Fiscal Year 2016 that includes a provision freezing the Pacheco Law for three years with regard to the MBTA. The Pioneer Institute apparently…
WBZ-TV | By Jim Armstrong | July 9, 2015 Catrina Mitchell has been a Green Line trolley operator for seven years — since she was just 21 years old. It can get chaotic. “I have to be the eyes of myself, the cars, the bikes, and the buses because we are all on the road at the…
Yesterday, the Massachusetts legislature did a great disservice to working families, T riders, and taxpayers across the Commonwealth with the suspension of the Taxpayer Protection Act (or Pacheco Law) for the next three years. The goal of the Taxpayer Protection Act (or Pacheco Law) was to protect the Commonwealth from the waste, fraud, and abuse…
Watch the video below as U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren defends the Taxpayer Protection Act (Pacheco Law) at a Banking Committee hearing. The following is an excerpt from her remarks: “I think it’s clear we need to address our long term transportation funding issues but in a manner that provides the same quality of service and…
Governing Magazine | By Suzanne M. Bump | June 26, 2015 When it comes to regulating the privatization of government services, it seems that one person’s mindless bureaucratic obstacle is another’s essential accountability mechanism. Thus it is in Massachusetts, where an exemption from a state law governing privatization is being sought in the name of fixing…
Salem News | By Marc R. Pacheco | Sunday, July 5, 2015 In a recent column for The Salem News, Eileen McAnneny states that the Taxpayer Protection Act has “hindered the T’s fundamental ability to maintain and repair its assets. Over the past five years, the barriers created by the Pacheco Law have contributed to…
Boston Globe | By Beth Healy | July 2, 2015 Two top officers of the Boston Carmen’s Union, Local 589, who serve on the MBTA pension fund board, issued a statement Thursday calling for “an immediate, open and complete audit” of the retirement system for transit workers. According to the statement, by president James O’Brien…
Commonwealth Magazine | By Michael Jonas | June 26, 2015 The temperature is rising on Beacon Hill in the battle over reforms to the much maligned MBTA. The Globe‘s David Scharfenberg reports today that both sides in the T debate are turning up the heat, with the Carmen’s Union that represents MBTA workers hitting the…
Worcester Telegram | By Maurice Cunningham | June 24, 2015 In a June 12 As I See It: Give Baker tools to fix the T, Rick Green, chairman of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, boasts that a MFA poll shows eighty percent support for Gov. Baker’s MBTA plan. One problem: the poll is a fraud. I’ve read…
A harmful provision contained in the House version of the state budget seeks to exempt the MBTA from the Taxpayer Protection Act; a state law that requires private contractors to demonstrate at least one penny of savings to taxpayers before state services can be privatized. The State Senate chose not to go along with the…
Dear Ms. Healey, As members of the MBTA Retirement Board (MBTARF), we have read with interest and concern your two articles from Sunday, June 28, 2015 and Monday, June 29, 2015, respectively, describing a “report” authored by, among others, Harry Markopolos casting a negative light on the MBTARF’s financial and actuarial reporting. In order for…