Or why buses and subway should be free to all*

By Charles J. Chisholm

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

Most public transit systems charge fares, but there are exceptions. A look at Tallin, the capital of Estonia, sheds some light on what it would be like to travel our T for free.

Today, some 600,000 riders have monthly bus/subway passes. At $75 per month, that adds up to about $540 million a year. Low and moderate-income workers travelling on the T can spend up to $1,500 a year in pre-tax income just to get to work. With today’s high cost of living in the metro Boston area, with high rents and precious little affordable housing, saving transportation costs is the most progressive way to advantage these workers.

But there are other huge benefits to a free transportation system. The first is mitigation of traffic congestion. The day the T was made free last spring, as compensation for winter delays, our interstate highways were all shaded green on the traffic graphics on local television stations, even at the peak of the morning rush. Spill over traffic did not materialize on the streets of Somerville, as I-93 was clear. Another benefit is fewer accidents on the roadways and less pollution, which mitigates global warming. Recent studies suggest asthma rates along I-93 significantly affect young children. Of America’s 50 worst bottlenecks, #15, #28 and #50 are all on I-93 creating 3.1 million gallons of wasted fuel and $93 million in lost productivity. Clearly, these facts alone foster a strong progressive argument for change.

Without fares, boarding times are faster and road repairs are less needed. The homeless have a better chance to reach a job interview, or even a place to accumulate in harsh winter conditions, from which they might more easily be found and afforded the opportunity to be transported to a shelter.

The only rational argument against such a policy is cost, especially with back maintenance estimated to be over $3 billion and the Green Line extension alleged to be $1 billion over estimates.

There is a solution to cost. And it is the fair share amendment offered by the Raise Up Massachusetts Committee. It proposes a 4% income tax on only the income over $1 million dollars a year in earnings by the top 1% of Massachusetts taxpayers. If you make up to $999,999 a year, you are exempt from the tax. It will garner up to $1.5 billion a year in additional tax revenues. This Constitutional Amendment must be approved by voters both in 2016 and 2018. Unlike past failed attempts to graduate our tax structure which gave the power to set rates to the Legislature, this amendment spells out who is taxed and by how much. And to the extent that our Constitution allows, it indicates for what the taxes should be used: transportation and education. The coalition of religious, labor and community groups who have proposed this amendment are well on their way to collect sufficient signatures to place this issue on the ballot.

Just imagine: between 2018-2023, we can eliminate all the maintenance issues and make the T free for busses and subways, while spending the rest on education. After 2023, we can transition to spending 2/3 the taxes on education, while maintaining a free transit system.

We are already on our way to becoming a world class city with the finest institutions of higher learning, the best hospitals and a burgeoning high tech community. Our public schools are among the best in the nation and our crime rates the least of major cities. Now is the time for Massachusetts to step up to the plate and be the only major metropolis in America to have a quality, free public transit system.

And what will be the effect on the millionaire class under this system: they will still be able to afford a million dollar home and pay cash for a vacation home with their net income, they can send three children to Harvard at full tuition, they can still buy two luxury cars without financing and fully paid for in their driveways, they still will dine at the best restaurants as frequently as they want and have several hundred thousand dollars a year left to invest in their Roth IRA and Roth 401K retirement accounts. Hardly a burden at all!

Sometimes great achievements take forever to accomplish: one hundred years for minority voting rights, fifty years for universal health care, forty years for gay rights equality and marriage equality. Massachusetts has always been at the cutting edge of dynamic social change, and here too, we can make a statement to the rest of our nation: free public transit is a progressive goal worth fighting for.

While Tallin, Estonia is smaller than Boston, with 400,000 residents, it is not that much smaller. We would do well to emulate their success.

The author, Charles J. Chisholm, is a professor of mathematics at Bunker Hill Community College, former chair of the Math & Physics Department, and a lifelong Somerville resident. The author acknowledges the AAA Massachusetts Newsletter and Wikipedia as sources cited in this article.