Reform: "We Must Act Now"

By Jeff Mullan, Transportation Undersecretary & Chief Operating Officer

People don’t generally debate about transportation issues – they argue about them.  Few consider transportation as an issue for the common weal.  For most of us, we think of transportation in terms of our commute, our neighborhood, or our particular city of town. Rarely do we look at it regionally, and almost never from the perspective of one Commonwealth.  That's changing.    We are in the midst of a rare moment.  Transportation reform is dominating the news.  For the first time in the lives of most of us, transportation has reached the top of the public policy debate.

Last week, I was privileged to visit Hanover, Fall River, Worcester, Natick, Salem, Lowell, Quincy and Haverhill with Governor Patrick.  In each venue, the Governor explained our transportation reform proposal, and patiently spent two hours answering questions and engaging with those in attendance.  To see a Governor of this Commonwealth governing and talking straight to the people, with the people, was extraordinary.  He is a true leader during a time when we all desperately need leadership.

Make no mistake about this.  We are at a turning point in transportation in Massachusetts – as important as the highway program that followed the 1948 master plan or Governor Sargent's decision to stop the highways within Route 128.  After nearly two decades of putting off tough decisions about our need to both reform the program and provide it with needed resources, we are out of options and nearly out of time.  We must act now.

Make your views known.  Use this website to let us know what you like and don’t like about the plan.  Let us know what you would do differently.  Take a cue from Governor Patrick and participate in your government.

Comments

[Mike T]

The need is in place to have the people that work as state employees , to work full days , elimate redundant overtine and give back unfair perks in their contracts, for example, they take off a day so someone else gets overtime and then work on their day off for overtime , Tis was not allowed when I was a teamster . You had to work your scheduled 40 hours before you recieved overtime.

There are a lot of things they should give back so that the tax payers don't get taxed to death. A lot of people left this state as well as New York, and they have to understand if we all leave there will be no one left to fund the perks and pensions. "who will turn out the lights"?