By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(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)

The Green Line Extension (GLX) is alive because you wouldn’t have it any other way.

Your overwhelming support for the project—for years—made all the difference last week. On May 9, your collective voices helped convince the MassDOT Board of Directors and the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board to pull it out of the fire. The boards voted unanimously to build the GLX. The stations may be leaner, and the Community Path shorter than we’d hoped. But every stop on the project through College Ave. is a go. Let me say that again: the GLX is a go.

We deserve to celebrate this victory, but we cannot rest easy. The GLX project still faces more hurdles, but the May 9 vote was by far the highest one we’ve cleared yet. I cannot overstate how perilously close to a no vote the GLX came. Ballooning costs that the City of Somerville had no control over posed an existential threat to the project. Cancelling it altogether — after all the hard work we’ve done and all the funding invested by the state — was still an option under serious consideration. We are grateful that it has survived, and we are especially thankful that Somerville residents remained so vocally behind the GLX.

But while the fiscal fever has subsided, keeping the GLX viable will still require administering some bitter medicine. In our case, this means a significant – and unprecedented – municipal contribution.

With the clear understanding that the project would not move forward otherwise, Cambridge City Manager Richard Rossi and I agreed that we would ask our respective legislative bodies to approve local funds to help close the project’s funding gap. Cambridge’s share is proposed to be $25 million. Our share, pending approval by the Board of Aldermen, will be $50 million.

I did not come to the decision to approach the Board lightly. You could say we were facing a take-it-or-leave-it-style Hobson’s choice: either a GLX that included local funding sources or no project at all. But to this community—and to me—it’s never been about “if” but “how.” The GLX is simply too important to our community to let it fail. So we didn’t choose between “yes” and “no.” We chose to find a way forward.

This contribution is an extraordinary step for both communities. Individual towns and cities are not normally asked to fund large, regional transportation projects like the GLX, the Big Dig, or our highways. We have begun to see this in other parts of the country, especially in projects like the GLX, but for Massachusetts, this is a new paradigm.

Somerville and Cambridge have agreed to be pioneers for this new funding approach with the state, but in return we are asking for fair play and forward thinking. We expect this to be the standard for new projects going forward. We also intend to work with the Commonwealth and our legislative delegation to seek laws on “value-capture” tools that will help cities and towns finance their contributions. “Value-capture” would allow us to pay off our share with local revenue from new growth around the Green Line. We also plan to ask the Commonwealth about the possibility of tapping into state Infrastructure Investment Incentive funds to help offset our contribution. We need a reliable, 21st century funding mechanism for 21st century infrastructure.

The initial sum is without a doubt painful. Somerville has many other projects that we need to fund from our roads to our schools to our parks and open space. But we still will reap returns on our investment over both the short and long term and be better off overall for it. Most important are the health benefits we have been waiting for. The GLX will finally take thousands of cars off the highways—an estimated 50,000 trips per day—that pollute our air and make Somervillians more vulnerable to serious health risks including heart and lung disease.

The GLX will also unlock more than 18 million square feet of potential new development along its stops, including 30,000 new jobs, 10,000 new housing units, and more than $3 billion in projected tax revenue for both Somerville and the Commonwealth by 2040. This project benefits everyone. Once finished, 85 percent of people in Somerville will live within a half-mile of a one-seat train ride into Boston. It will also provide more walking and biking paths, to help us get to our destinations using healthy modes of transit.

We need this project, and thanks to your vocal efforts, it’s still a go. So let’s keep it that way. As the FTA and the state go through their final review and consideration and as we wait for project bids to come in, we must remain vigilant. Please keep a watchful eye and be ready to speak up if we need you. As was so very evident last Monday, your voices matter.