Driscoll MBTA Amendment Included in Senate’s FY25 Closeout Budget

OCTOBER 29, 2025

Through the Senate’s October 23, 2025 floor debate on the FY25 closeout budget, Senator Bill Driscoll Jr.’s (D-Milton) amendment #34 was included. The amendment instructs the MBTA, in consultation with the MBTA Advisory Board, to examine and offer recommendations to update the local MBTA Assessments on Cities and Towns.

MBTA Assessments on Cities and Towns are the amount of money that local municipalities pay into the MBTA budget for MBTA service, and are directed through a formula that includes a population variable for some, but lacks additional variables to account for levels or types of service for many other municipalities with direct service. In FY25, 128 communities were collectively required to pay $193 million into MBTA service.

During his floor speech Senator Driscoll compared the level of MBTA service and the last 10 years of infrastructure investment in Milton vs. Quincy, and the nearly identical assessment fee that each municipality pays annually.

“During the time that Milton and Quincy continued to pay an annual assessment, the MBTA promised to renovate the entire Mattapan Line and refurbish 8 of the almost 100-year-old PCC trolley cars so that they could remain in service until the renovation of the Line was finished and be replaced by Type-9 cars. At this same time, Redline Stations, Wollaston and North Quincy, were completely rebuilt while the Mattapan Line projects, serving Dorchester, Mattapan and Milton, have remained stagnant,” said Driscoll. “We’ve barely been able to get the T to hold a public meeting or stick to a regular schedule of updates to the Legislative delegation. We have only received half the number of refurbished trolley cars the riders were promised. Two more arrived in service recently – a far cry from when all 8 refurbished trolleys were projected by the T to be in service by August of 2019.”

Higher levels of investment in infrastructure does not end with Quincy; and Milton is also not the only community paying an outsized assessment based on the transportation service their community receives. 

Formula variables known as  “population multipliers” are a feature of the MBTA assessments and are taken into account when calculating a municipality's total MBTA assessment. The problem here is that because some of the original MBTA members were a part of MBTA service from the get-go, their population multiplier may be the same or higher than those municipalities which joined decades later, despite what their population actually is. In all, there are several municipalities paying assessment amounts comparable to or even higher than other municipalities with more transportation service, more recent infrastructure investment, and/or higher populations utilizing T service. 

All public transportation investment is important and benefits many across the Commonwealth, but the formula that directs the amount of money each municipality pays into the MBTA needs to be updated to reflect equity based on what service is provided and the quality of that service. “Milton is not alone in paying an outsized amount in terms of the service offered in the Town. There are communities that no longer have the service lines they had decades ago, but continue to pay an outsized assessment. Further, some are able to deduct payments to Regional Transportation Authorities (RTAs) from their assessment payment, or simply aren't mentioned in the statute at all despite having T service and ultimately pay no assessment,” Driscoll concluded.

Senator Driscoll offered this amendment to begin a process that modernizes assessments and rectifies these issues by instructing the MBTA and Advisory Board to review this MBTA statute and assessment formula. The MBTA is to report back with findings and recommendations for updating the assessment formula to the Legislature and MBTA Board of Directors. 

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