Vice President Jim O’Brien, Delegate Larry Kelly, Recording Secretary John Clancy and Legislaive Agent Richard Guiney explained that the T pass program has been collectively bargained with workers compromising on wages and benefits to pay for the program and pointing out that active employees use the cards up to one hundred times a day for work related tasks.

HB 2644 would take away the Management’s authority to bargain over the pass program and was sponsored by first term Republican State Representative Steve Howitt. With Howitt sitting as a member of the Transportation Committee in the Hearing, Vice President Jimmy O’Brien explained the collective bargaining process to the Committee noting that active and retired Local 589 members had bargained for and compromised on wages and benefits to maintain the T pass program. “There are no free rides,” O’Brien told the Committee, “this program is paid for by the workers in our contract. And retirees paid for this program over decades of bargaining in the past”.

Delegate Larry Kelly told the Committee that the largest portion of card use or “taps” is a result of active employees doing their jobs not riding the system in off hours. “On average a CSA (Customer Service Agent) will tap in and out 80 to 90 times during a shift,” explained Kelly. “They move in and out of the system helping riders, solving problems and assisting overall. Bus drivers tap in and out for similar reasons and to use facilities in stations. T workers also use the pass program to attend trainings and required meeting with T officials”.

Legislative Agent Richard Guiney noted that passes all have pictures and computer chips so that oversight of the program is tight. “Management tracks each card and lost cards are deactivated and replaced,” said Guiney. “There is no fraud and no abuse”.

O’Brien urged the Committee to focus on the real financial issues facing the MBTA – $700 million in debt placed on the MBTA when the new funding formula was passed and the current $161 million operating deficit. O’Brien also noted that the Mica Bill, pending in the US Congress, could cut 30-40% of federal transportation funds to Massachusetts. “These are the real economic issues,” said O’Brien, “not the decimal dust of an already funded pass program”.

Bill sponsor Steve Howitt sat silent during the entire Hearing and never questioned Local 589 Representatives when offered the opportunity by the Committee Chairman.