Posts Tagged "massachusetts"
Go big or go home: Massachusetts leaders get inspired in Seattle
Last week, delegation last week of elected officials, business and civic leaders, funders, and transportation advocates from Massachusetts traveled to Seattle to see firsthand the specific ways that Seattle is investing in transportation to build strong local communities, thriving neighborhoods, and growing businesses.
New Massachusetts academy will focus on performance measures
Following the success of last year’s academy sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, the Barr Foundation is sponsoring a new Transportation Leadership Academy for regional planning agencies in Massachusetts focused on using performance measures to better assess the impacts and benefits of transportation investments.
Recapping our discussion about states making transportation a key driver of their economic development agendas [video]
States are changing how they select transportation projects in order to save money and boost economic development. Catch up on our webinar explaining how states are attempting to focus state funds on more cost-effective investments in transportation.
How are states making transportation a key driver of their economic development agendas? [Webinar]
Join us in two weeks as we explore how two states have made transportation a key piece of their economic development agendas and have focused state funds on cost-effective investments in transportation.
How one state is using transportation to boost their economy — a story of success from Massachusetts
Massachusetts’ economic development success is attributable in part to the leadership of the past two gubernatorial administrations — one Democratic, one Republican — and their efforts to focus state investments on improving public transit, repairing critical infrastructure and developing walkable communities.
Helping governors save money and attract talent through a fresh approach to transportation
A new guide released today by Transportation for America shows governors and their administration how a fresh approach to transportation is fundamental to creating quality jobs and shared prosperity while running an efficient government that gets the greatest benefit from every taxpayer dollar.
Going deep with regional leaders on using performance measurement
We’re in the midst of our second in-person workshop with seven local groups of metropolitan leaders learning how performance measures and a data-driven approach to assessing the costs and benefits of transportation spending can lead to better spending decisions.
A look at progress around the country on improving state transportation policy & raising new funding
Scores of state legislatures are still in session or nearing the end of their sessions. With transportation funding and policy on the docket in scores of states, here’s a roundup of the progress being made in states working to create more transparency, build more public trust in transportation spending, and even raise new money.
Massachusetts event highlights the growing trend of states moving to enable more local transportation funding
“Let the voters decide.” It’s a mantra we hear all the time in politics, but not quite as much in transportation. Yet that’s starting to change, as nearly a dozen states have taken steps to empower local communities with new or enhanced taxing authority for transportation over the last few years, putting the question directly in the hands of voters.
How many states will try to do something different in 2016?
With Congress finally wrapping up their five-year transportation bill in late 2015, the spotlight will burn even brighter on states in 2016. With 40 state legislatures now in session and six more set to begin in the coming weeks, how many states will raise new funding? How many states will attempt to improve how they spend their transportation dollars? How many will take unfortunate steps backwards?
Virginia launches program to remove politics from transportation investment decisions
This week Virginia DOT released a list of recommended projects across the state, the result of a new process to objectively screen and score transportation projects based on their anticipated benefits.
Lessons from recent successes: Winning State Funding for Transportation
Growing again after a long economic slump that left a huge backlog of unmet needs, a dozen or more states are moving now to raise revenue for transportation. What can they learn from the other states that acted in the last year or two? Our new report, out today, draws out seven key lessons.
Important transportation ballot measures decided yesterday
Though there were some significant defeats for promising transportation-related ballot measures yesterday, they continue to be approved at very high rates and a few key wins carry some important impacts for years to come.
Massachusetts vote a bellwether for efforts to raise state transportation revenue
In 2013, the Massachusetts legislature came together on an ambitious plan to necessary revenues for transportation, passing a three-cent gas tax increase as well as indexing it to inflation. In what makes this one of the most interesting ballot measures to watch, just a year after the legislature approved it, voters on Nov. 4 will decide whether or not to repeal part of the package.
Important state and local transportation measures will be decided at the ballot this year
This November a handful of measures will be decided at ballot boxes across the country to raise (or reduce in one case) new revenue for transportation at the local or state level. It’s not quite a new phenomenon — local communities have often gone to voters to raise additional money for transportation investments — but […]
Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts follow the trend: voters support transportation revenue increases
As voters have been proving over and over during primary season this year, raising taxes or fees for transportation isn’t a political death sentence – no matter the party or political affiliation. In the past two weeks, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire’s state legislators faced their first primary since voting to pass bills to raise additional revenue for much needed transportation and infrastructure projects.
Massachusetts is attempting to lead the way on a performance-based system for selecting transportation projects.
Last year, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed a landmark bill to fund urgently needed statewide transportation investments over the coming years. But how will the state ensure that those dollars go where they’re needed most and can have the greatest impact? Advocates, state officials and other stakeholders in Massachusetts are in the midst of figuring that out.
In state elections, voters decline to punish pols for raising transportation taxes
Raising the gas tax is a political death sentence, right? Well, not necessarily. In at least two states where legislators raised gas taxes or other fees in the last two years, voters have responded by sending almost all of the supportive members of both parties back to their state houses. Could it be that voters are more supportive of raising revenue than we think?
In 2013, 20-plus states took up transportation funding: Here’s the final tally
With a large number of state legislatures convening as the new year gets underway, it’s worth a look back at an important trend from 2013: States stepping forward to raise additional money for transportation. With federal funding remaining flat in 2012′s transportation bill (MAP-21) and after years of deferred action during the long recession, a large number of states, metro areas and local communities moved to supplement federal dollars with new revenues of their own.
A state with one of the oldest transportation systems tries to make things new — new state series
Though Massachusetts’ bridges are middle of the pack in deficiency, they’re beyond middle age (an average of 56-plus years) and many of its busy subways, bus lines and commuter trains – and the roads, bridges and tunnels that carry them — are starting to fall apart after decades of heavy use. Saddled with debt from the Big Dig (among other things) and chronically underfunded after years of budget cuts, Massachusetts leaders and advocates are trying to reform their transportation agencies while raising new money to bring an aging system into the 21st century.
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