Transportation Finance Recommendations - October 2019 Introduction

A reliable, affordable, and well- connected transportation network is particularly essential to advancing the region’s equity goals: such a network would improve the lives of lower-income populations by enhancing access to good jobs, schools, and services.1 While a vital feature of the built environment, the transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts. [...] To explore the topic further, in January 2017 the urban economics consulting firm Strategic Economics completed the report “Expanding the Use of Value Capture for Transportation and TOD in Massachusetts.”5 The report, commissioned by MAPC, the City of Somerville, the Barr Foundation, and A Better City, documented how existing value capture tools in Massachusetts have been utilized, identified what. [...] To enhance the utility of the program, the proposed revisions include the reduction of the property owner approval threshold to 51%. [...] Massachusetts currently charges TNCs $0.20/trip to operate within the Commonwealth; of this fee, 50% is allocated to the municipality where the trips began, 25% to the Commonwealth Transportation Fund, and 25% to the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency to provide financial assistance to the taxicab industry. [...] Unfortunately, voters repealed the section of the law that indexed the tax amount to the annual rate of growth in inflation, and the value of the 3 cent increase has already begun to erode.