NO,NO,NO, We the tax payer are out of money.

User pay, increase the fares to cover the cost of operations. That's what the private sector does.

Yes, increase the gas tax. We have to pay for what we use. Actually everyone uses the roadways one way or another because they deliver our goods and services to us. Only about 1.6% of highway funds go for alternative transportation such as bikeways but bring far more then that in savings- better health, less pollution, etc. Non motorized transportation amenities should be increased.

How about cutting spending in other areas - that's what business owners have to do when there is a shortfall.

I have to travel the roads to work 43 miles from my house. I cannot get a job closer to home because of my profession and my age. I will have to pay more of my hard earned money for a service that I cannot use because of the times that the train runs. I for one am sick of paying for everyone else. If you use it you need to pay for it. Raise the fare for the T and make other cuts! STOP TAXING ME!

Always count your fingers after you shake hands with a politician.

The latest fiscal cliff idea: a higher federal gas tax. State highway officials and industries that stand to benefit from increased highway spending such as road builders and heavy equipment makers are among those pressing lawmakers to raise the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gasoline tax as part of a broad agreement. It's just one of a grab bag of proposals various groups are trying to tuck into a deal.

For the curious.... Google "Your tax dollars at work: 2009 MBTA salary." The Herald published a breakdown of "T" salaries back in 2009. Hang on to your socks folks - and these were for 2009!

Lets try cutting down on government pensions, hiring of relatives, general corruption of public officials first.

The election sent the clear signal: GIVE US MORE OF THE SAME!
Expect more taxes and less transportation system.

I go to NH a lot and pay HIGH tolls on their hiways. Would be more than willing both to pay myself on our hiways and to get some of our money back from them in turn.

Did you ever try to argue a computer generated bill, no matter how illogical the amount? How will they give refunds after a class action?
Per mile is "opposite" the MPG we seem to be trying to encourage!
Just make a rule that a boss must have a least 20 employees; if a teacher can manage 20 kids...There are a lot of extra management types. Make the offices paperless.

cut the governors salary to minimum wage along with all state employeees amd make them use obama care like the rest of us. tho hell with the unions they are from an era of past abuses and nepotisim

What if we stopped putting transportation "revenues" into the general fund, and actually used them for transportation expenses? Transportation problem solved.

Didn't we just bailout the T? So is this an increase to pay for money that has already been spent? Raise tolls so that more of the revenue falls on non-residents.

First lets clean up the management structure at the T and reduce as much waste as possible.

Also base the fares on the actual cost to operate regardless of the service. Third
introduce real pension reform.
last you can begin to think of hitting up the taxpayers for more money how's that for a thought! isn't it nice to be in the middle of the pack in regard to gasoline taxes nationally?

I don't mind paying a few more cents BUT in return I want to see reduction in "T" salaries, the Salem railroad station parking garage BUILT finally and trains run out of North Station beyond 11:59pm! If we are PAYING for these things then we should have it OUR WAY, right?

You didn't build that,...but you can tax it.

Why is it the feds let NH have tolls on I93 & I95 just over our boarder but we can't? I'm not saying I want this done I'm just curious. I'm firmly in the camp of budget and pension reform. Show us you can tighten the belt with out steep service cuts and then come back and talk tolls and gas tax. You cant tell me the technology doesn't exists that could do away with toll collectors. I think WBZ did a story on them, starting pay in the low $50,000 range. Come on!

First people using public transportation should pay for it. Drivers are expected to pay for their own transportation and subsidize busses, trains and subways. Second the entire government continued to give themselves raises while the entire private sector still tries to recover. Roll back those salaries like the rest of us have.
However, to answer the question taxing gas more makes the most sense. We don't need government putting machines in our cars to track our mileage and we don't need them getting daily access to our gps data. Privacy has already taken enough of a hit in recent years. If you let them in to your car for this they will not stop there. Next will be automatic traffic citations and parking tickets.

Sean, What about taxing on our side of the New Hampshire border ? CWheels is correct, why not increase the number of tolls and the cost on the Massachusetts side of the border. More good paying jobs !
Under Free Enterprise why is the government, ie; the state of New Hampshire allowed to be in the same business organized crime was years ago. Gambling, the lottery, State run liquor stores ? It seems that free enterprise is going away in lieu of the government running all of these enterprises. Toll collectors on the Tobin Bridge and on the Mass Pike earn $60,000.00 per year. In New Hampshire they earn $35,000.00 per year. But again if their are no cut backs, an increase in the gas tax along with new income taxes how are poor people going to get by ?

How about cut goverment 30% (Spending, Budgets, Employees) I bet they wouldn't miss a beat and no one would notice.

Have to hand it to NH.....no income, sales, capital gains, excise taxes etc..

Don't need a sign saying welcome to MA....can always tell by the condition of the roads.

Nearly every driver who wishes to visit or leave NH or Maine or (in many cases) VT has to pass through Massachusetts. Yet our toll roads are structured so as to only affect MA residents. It's crazy. Unlike many Patch readers, I don't mind paying taxes to support infrastructure, and I don't think the MBTA needs to break even to justify its existence. But to allow the rest of the Union to (literally) drive over us without pitching in a dime for our infrastructure is just plain foolish. We need tolls at our northern borders and possibly at our southern ones as well, on I-91, I-95, and I-93. I don't understand why no one in public life brings this up.

I don't know about the excise tax (that goes to the individual city/town), but the state gas tax is supposed to pay for things like road/bridge improvements and repair.

Is it that the gas tax isn't high enough, or is the money from it, being spent on things other than road/bridge improvements and repair?

I like that DO NOT STOP sign in the picture above. Route 128 could use a lot of those...

There was a time when the old saying "there ain't no free lunch" used to be true. That notion came apart when the gas tax "fund" was raided to pay for public transit projects that wouldn't otherwise "pencil out"... or pay for themselves. Today it's a national problem. There are no self-supporting public transportation systems anywhere that I know of. I currently live in a place where bike paths, bike bridges, jogging trails and metropolitan transit systems are all flourishing and expanding thanks to politicians pilfering gas tax and "stimulous" money. What's worse, they are converting lanes on local streets to "buses only" use, reducing the auto and truck-carring capacity of the road system... financing it on the backs of the very folks who paid the gas taxes that built and maintained them. The gas tax "golden goose" is suddenly being pinched by the hybrid cars that generate frwer gas tax dollars... so they want to levy a special "road tax" on those less thirsty vehicles... just to make it "fair".

You get what you vote for, folks. Like BHO said about 4 years ago... "Elections have consequences:.

Tax payers should be off the hook in this case. MA Transportation could easily be paid for through corporate marketing opportunities. Frankly, I don't mind a bit if I rode the "Starbucks" train, or the "McDonald's" bus or the "Coca-Cola" subway. Offer the Fortune 500's their own passenger cars to purchase and outfit as they like with all their logos as they see fit. Look as NASCAR sponsorship. It is a perfect profit model. Fares will cover some of the operating costs as they typically do but the real costs for general upgrades and maintenance could come through commonly practiced billboard marketing.