A bridge that will carry Green Line trains across commuter rail tracks behind the Cambridge Crossing development is seen under construction on Oct. 19, 2019. Photo courtesy of MassDOT
With gas prices low but the economy strained, a significant public majority still supports state action to raise new revenue for transportation investments and to join a multi-state roadway fuel cap-and-trade program, according to recent poll results.
In a MassINC Polling Group survey of 1,478 Massachusetts residents released Wednesday, 74 percent of respondents said they strongly or somewhat support generating more revenue to go toward roadways and public transit while 67 percent strongly or somewhat supported the still-in-development Transportation and Climate Initiative. The poll was conducted May 5 through May 13.
Public support shifted only slightly from when MassINC pollsters asked the same exact questions about revenue and TCI – neither of which specified the financial impact either proposal will have on consumers – in November.
In that poll of 600 registered Massachusetts voters, 77 percent strongly or somewhat supported increasing revenue and 62 percent strongly or somewhat supported TCI.
Net support for higher revenue dropped from 62 percent in November to 56 percent in May, while it increased from 31 percent to 44 percent on the TCI question.
Both issues had been center stage in Massachusetts this year before officials officials pivoted in March to the public health crisis and the widespread economic damage caused by COVID-19.
With Massachusetts unemployment at a record 15.1 percent and both state and local budgets already facing massive gaps, many stakeholders have hinted the transportation tax package the House approved in March – before the pandemic hit the state in full force – does not have a future.
While Senate President Karen Spilka said last month that she is “not certain that now is the time to be talking about taxes,” progressive groups and economists in recent days have come out in support of major tax increases, saying that approach, while difficult in a recession, is better than major spending cuts.
