Word: mbta
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...Greater Boston area this week faces the shutdown of its subway, bus and commuter rail service. The paradox presents an object lesson in the venal intricacies of Massachusetts politics; it represents as well an opportunity too good to miss for the transformation of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) into a stable transit network...
...state court ruled last week that Gov. Edward J. King acted illegally when he took control of the T late last month. Under the system's complicated charter, the MBTA Advisory Board--composed of representatives from the 79 cities and towns that are served by the T and provide taxes for its support-must authorize all expenditures. The board had refused to grant a suplemental budget requested by T directors, and the legislature refused to provide state funds, so King took control of the system. But under the court order, the T must find additional funding from either local communities...
...governor's choice for T dicrector, Robert Kiley, had begun to make some headway in the attempt to take control of the system away from the powerful Carmen's Union. But when King swept into office two years ago-a victory aided by the support of many in the MBTA unions-he ended that process, and the T again found itself run by a powerful and corrupt labor leadership-so powerful that it exercised near-total control over all manner of MBTA administrative decisions, so powerful that its members are able to abuse overtime payments and other contract provisions...
Legislators from western areas of the state, who represent districts with no MBTA service and have little incentive to bail out the system, said they too would oppose King's latest proposal. "As far as I'm concerned, the system can shut down," State Rep. William D. Benson said yesterday...
King's bill would allow the agency's board of directors to override the Advisory Board's refusal to give the MBTA supplemental funding this year. It would also give the governor a vote equal to that of Boston in Advisory Board decisions, a step which would deprive the Advisory Board of its independence in evaluating MBTA budget requests, Smith said...