33% hike in commuter rail fares?

• Position: NEWS

Byline: John J. Monahan

COLUMN: MASS POLITICS

Hold on to your Charlie Card.

State transportation officials, who last year put through a 23 percent fare hike for commuter rail, MBTA buses and subways, may be pushing through a 33 percent fare hike later this year.

The rate hike plan, unveiled in Boston last week, was offered as a contingency plan in the event the Legislature does not adopt Gov. Deval L. Patrick's proposals for $1.9 billion in new income taxes and fee increases.

While House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo has said he is not sure he is willing to take on that big a revenue hike, the rank and file House members remain hard-pressed to go along with any tax hikes on that scale this year in light of continuing high unemployment. Transportation Secretary Richard Davies, however, has been pushing lawmakers, meeting individually with local legislators last week to promote the tax plan.

But like the conditions that drove last year's fare hikes, again this year the debt-ridden MBTA is pointing to a massive $140 million deficit in its operating budget for next year. Without a bailout from a tax hike, transportation officials said they will have no choice but to raise fares and cut service.

They outlined two options in a report on closing the deficit.

One would be a 33 percent fare hike that would boost the commuter rail single fare from Worcester to Boston to $17 one way or $34 for a round-trip ticket. That would come just a year after the one-way fare jumped to $13. Fares for a Boston subway ride would go from $2 to $2.60 and bus fare would go from $1.50 to $2.

A second option would be a fare hike of 15 percent, with service cuts including elimination of weekend commuter rail service, fewer weekday trains and elimination of the 30 least-used Boston area bus routes.

But those are not the only alternatives.

A group of labor, senior and youth groups called for a .75 percent transit payroll tax on employers - not employees - but only for workers earning more than $100,000. They said it would eliminate $120 million in Big Dig debt that accounts for the MBTA's massive annual deficits, and boost funds to regional transit systems including the Worcester Regional Transit Authority by 80 percent after years of cutbacks on local bus routes.

The transit tax on high wage employees would generate $190 million annually, with $130 million of that coming from Boston area employers. It would also extend the current half-price fares for students, to all people...