Category: News and Announcements
On April 4, the MBTA Advisory Board voted on a 23 percent fare hikes across the board, plus the elimination of four weekday routes. Pitched as a more palatable alternative to the two earlier proposals (35-43% hikes, cuts to over 100 bus lines), this proposal nevertheless represents an unacceptable burden on T riders, students, seniors, and the unemployed. It also leaves us with a $184 million budget deficit, which we’ll have to resolve with even bigger hikes and cuts next year.
On April 3, members of the Youth AffordabiliT Coalition occupied the State House steps to demand that the legislature intervene to cover the $91 million deficit for this year, as well as institute a long-awaited youth pass. On April 4, members from Occupy MBTA held a National Day of Action around Public Transportation and began a 10-day occupation of the State House steps to demand comprehensive transit plan for the entire state of Massachusetts. On our third day of Camp Charlie, we’re looking forward to a packed weekend of education and organization around the MBTA!
Here’s a quick rundown of what you can expect over the next few days.
Crash course on the MBTA budget crisis
TODAY, Friday, April 6, 3 p.m.
State House Steps
Over the years, the MBTA’s financial viability has been wrecked by Big Dig debt, forward funding, and interest rate swaps ($26 million owed annually to Wall Street banks; the MBTA now possesses a total debt load of $5.2 billion and counting. How did the MBTA get into this position? What are the current proposals on the table? How does this occupation fit into this plan?
Riding the Rails: Outreach Training
TODAY, Friday, April 6, 4:30 p.m.
State House steps
Take our message directly to T riders across Boston – no hikes, no cuts, no layoffs! This is about as direct as outreach can get. Spend a few hours learning how to talk to strangers, and help us start a longer conversation about the T.
Occupy MBTA Meeting + Open Strategy Session
TODAY, Friday, April 6, 6 pm
State House Steps
A comprehensive overview of where we are, what our demands are, why these dates are important, and so forth, followed by an action assembly to talk plans, strategy, and next steps. ALL ARE WELCOME — please come, a great place to plug in for the first time and learn more about this campaign, and figure out what you can do in the next eight days to really drive this message home.
Camp Charlie Potluck and Teach-In
Saurday, April 7, 1 pm – 4 pm
State House steps
Bring a dish to share and join us for an teach-ins about the fight to save the T and the broader struggle for transit justice. Interest rate swaps, debt cancellation, history fo the T, and more. For more details, contact: Josh Golin (golingolin@yahoo.com)
Joint Committee on Transportation Hearing on Bill H.4011
Monday, April 9, 10 am
State House, Room B-1
This is a big one. On Monday, Deval Patrick will offer a short-term solution to this year’s gap in the MBTA’s budget – a $51 million transfer from the Motor Vehicles Inspection Trust Fund at the MBTA. The proposal acknowledges a structural deficit, yet fails to make any provisions forlong-term funding of the MBTA. At the same time, he will be recommending that MassDOT amend its current lease agreement with the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy Board to require the Conservancy to comply with open meeting and public records laws.
Both issues have obvious relevance of Occupy MBTA! Join us as we call on Governor Patrick to offer a comprehensive plan that builds force in the entire state — not just piece by piece correction.
WHY HERE? WHY THESE DATES?
Many people have asked, “Why ten days? What happens on the 14th?”
By law, the MBTA must balance its budget every year by April 15. But the MBTA can’t balance its budget — it has been chronically underfunded for years, with no allocation made to cover huge losses under Forward Funding and the Big Dig debt. The recommendation that came forward on April 4 — a 23% fare hike across the board, plus cuts to buses, with more to come next year — is an unacceptable solution, which leaves us with a $200 million deficit for the upcoming year.
The occupation is a people’s veto. We’re holding them to the date, but we’re taking it above the MBTA to the legislature, which got the MBTA into this mess in the first place and has the ability to do something about it. In three months of hearings, Governor Patrick, House Speaker DeLeo, and Senate President Murray have been woefully silent on this issue. If the MBTA is truly to balance its budget by the 15th, we need our leaders to step in to offer a real solution, both to this year’s crisis, and to the spiraling debt costs that the MBTA will continue to face in years to come.
How do we do that? With a comprehensive transit plan that benefits the entire state. With a one-year bailout to stave off devastating hikes and cuts. And with a commitment to do this without privatizing and selling it piece by piece. We’ll be here until the 14th. We hope you’ll join us!
www.occupymbta.org
TOWN HALL FORUM: JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON, “The Attack on Black Men & Boys”
Stop S. Bill 661 H. Bill 1568 at Hibernian Hall (Dudley Sq),
FRIDAY APRIL 6th 6-8pm
Topics to be addressed:
* Trayvon Martin case:
Justice for Trayvon
* Cases of violence against Black Men throughout the US; Lynchings, Draggings, etc.
* Racist Rhetoric, Racial profiling, Police Brutality, Murders, Violence, Mass Incarceration
On Saturday April 7th at 12:30 p.m. at Ruggles Station, there will be a rally in support of justice for Trayvon Martin. The march will go from RUGGLES to DUDLEY, ending in front of the Police Station, with a speakout near the old B2 barracks grounds. Please come and stand up against racism, racial profiling and corruption!
OccupyMBTA will be holding its first assembly at Camp Charlie, the ten day occupation established yesterday on the steps of the Massachusetts State House. Below is the tentative agenda. Please join us at 8:00pm tonight!
1. Why we’re here
It’s useful to get a quick overview of what, exactly, is going on with the T, and why this framing – a 10 day occupation ending on the 14th – matters. The current proposal includes a 23% fare hike to balance this year’s budget, but will leave the MBTA with an anticipated deficit of $100 million next year. Over the years, the MBTA’s financial viability has been wrecked by Big Dig debt, forward funding, and interest rate swaps ($26 million owed annually to Wall Street banks); the MBTA now possesses a total debt load of $5.2 billion and counting.
2. Our demands – as they stand now – are threefold.
First, the legislature must step in to fill this year’s $91 million budget gap – not with hikes (as proposed), but with money from the state budget. Second, the legislature must commit NOW to a comprehensive transit plan for the state of Massachusetts, not one that pits riders from one region against each other, but one which works to build an equitable transit system for the whole state. Third, they have to do this without privatizing it piece by piece. Public transit is not an asset to be sold for a quick dollar; it’s a right, and it should stay in public hands.
There’s a lot of space under here for the how, where, and why – which is what we’re hoping to piece out in this discussion.
3. What we can do in the next ten days to drive the message home.
An action assembly to talk about plans, strategies, and next steps (and how you can help!)
At ‘Camp Charlie,’ Occupy the MBTA’s occupation of the State House steps enters its second day. Meanwhile, the board of the MBTA still refuses to challenge the dominion of Wall Street banks over public finances.
Last night, dozens of activists slept on the steps of the Massachusetts State House to protest the proposed service cuts, fare hikes, and layoffs. Occupiers also demanded that the T cancel its interest rate swaps with JPMorgan Chase, Deustche Bank, and UBS. Combined, these three cartels enjoyed more than $200 billion dollars in taxpayer bailouts. Their CEOs took home nearly $32 million in 2010 alone. Now, despite owing their existence to the goodwill of taxpayers, they will extract $26 million a year from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority every year for the foreseeable future. So far, the MBTA has resisted demands to cancel these toxic swaps and instead is attempting to balance its books through massive fare increases that will devastate seniors, students, the disabled, and low-income riders.
JPMorgan Chase
The MBTA loses $8.9 million a year to JPMC and is on the hook for another $115 million in the future to JPMC; it can only get out of these deals if it pays JPMC $40 million in penalties. The CEO of JPMC made $20.8 million in 2010 after the company received a $100 billion taxpayer bailout. JPMC is currently foreclosing on homes all around Boston.
Deutsche Bank
The MBTA loses $8.3 million a year to Deutsche Bank and is on the hook for another $75 million in the future to Deutsche; it can only get out of these deals if it pays Deutsche Bank $23 million in penalties. The CEO of Deutsche made $8.3 million in 2010 after the company got a $66 billion taxpayer bailout. Deutsche Bank is foreclosing on homes all around Boston.
UBS
The MBTA loses $9 million a year to UBS and is on the hook for another $97 million in the future to UBS; it can only get out of these deals if it pays UBS $39 million in penalties. UBS received a $77 billion taxpayer bailout. It does not foreclose on homes.
As a result, the MBTA is ready to cut service on nearly two dozen bus routes and increase fares more than twenty percent. This must be seen for what it is: a new chapter in the officially sanctioned robbery of the public trust by consolidated, private interests. Interests, it will be repeated, with a demonstrated inability to survive the open market in the absence of obscene taxpayer subsidy. These criminal, rent-seeking organizations are the products of government corruption and monopoly control, not free enterprise or competitive advantage.
For thousands of the 99% who rely on the T to get to work, the proposed changes amount to a massive tax increase, all of which will go directly to the banks. This should be compared to the four billion dollars in federal subsidies lavished on oil companies like ExxonMobil, who in turn spend nearly fifty-million dollars a year lobbying to continue their historically profitable destruction of the earth’s atmosphere.
Despite these obstacles, many other cities have forced bankers to the negotiating table by passing resolutions forbidding further business if they refuse. In this manner, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland and many others have succeeded in reducing interest rate payments, not only preserving their public goods and services, but reminding the multinational trusts that it is they who are in debt to us, and not the other way around. Occupy the MBTA remains mystified as to why the Board of Mass Dot and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are not willing to pursue a similar tactic.
We need a comprehensive, accessible, and sustainable public transportation plan for the 99% across the entire Commonwealth, not a short-sighted, short-term austerity band-aid.