Winter this year, for all intents and purposes, never came. Massachusetts has seen minimal snowfall this year — including only 7.8 inches in Boston, a record-setting low — and, as a result, $40 million of the $50 million in state funds earmarked for snow removal remains unspent. Rather than adding the surplus onto next year's snow removal budget, Governor Deval Patrick has suggested that the extra money be given to the MBTA to help offset their $161 million deficit.
Though the prospect of avoiding dreaded fare hikes and inconvenient service cuts is appealing, critics argue that giving the money to the MBTA would be a shortsighted and inefficient investment and instead believe that the money should be put into the snow budget for next year in case there is an overflow. We at the Daily think that giving the money to the MBTA is a wise investment, and not just because we have learned what living without the subway is like thanks to Red Line shutdowns in recent months.
It's impossible to predict how much it's going to snow in a given winter. Like we've seen this year, sometimes snowfall can be surprisingly low. Sometimes, like last year, we find ourselves buried up to the neck in pounds of slush. The point is that you can never tell how costly a winter will be, and, for the most part, the current budget Massachusetts has for snow removal works just fine.
It's true that this was not the case last year, when Boston saw over six feet of snow, and the State House had to combat one storm after another throughout the Commonwealth. But years like 2011 are the exception, not the rule. And even then, the snow removal budget lasted for two thirds of the winter, and the State House was able to make up the deficit. The MBTA shortfall, on the other hand, is real and dire, and it makes little sense to tie up $40 million for an unlikely, hypothetical scenario when there is a crucial agency that desperately needs to be bailed out.
Nearly a million Boston-area residents use the T daily. About a third of these are workers traveling to their jobs. If the MBTA implements either of its proposed deficit reduction plans, everyday tasks will become a lot more difficult for a lot of people. $40 million can't undo the years of poor management and fiscal ineptitude on the part of MBTA officials that lead to the current shortfall, but it can likely keep afloat several bus routes and allow thousands of local residents to continue commuting into Boston.
Still, this is only a temporary solution. Without serious changes, the MBTA budget gap will only grow in the coming years, and the government will have to consider more permanent fixes, such as a gas tax, higher tolls and budget reapportionment. In the long run, reallocating the snow removal surplus would only be a small help, but even that would make it worthwhile.
