First of three parts
LAST WEEK was one of the busiest and most frustrating travel weeks of the year. But even before they had to slog through Thanksgiving traffic, Massachusetts residents were not exactly thrilled with the state of getting around the Commonwealth.
In a new poll, sponsored by the Barr Foundation, residents give both the governor and Legislature middling grades for handling transportation, spurred on by concerns about traffic and safety. And that was all before the MBTA announced it would take a staggering $24.5 billion to bring the beleaguered system into a state of good repair.
The MassINC Polling Group has been polling regularly about transportation in Massachusetts for over a decade. For this series of articles, we dove into some of our past recent polls to provide context to this latest research.
Residents gave both Gov. Maura Healey and the Legislature passing grades on transportation, but it’s not a report card either will want to hang on the refrigerator. C was the most common grade. No more than 30 percent gave either an A or a B.
For her handling of the T specifically, about as many gave Healey a D (17 percent), or an F (13 percent) as gave her an A (6 percent) or B (24 percent). Residents graded the Legislature even more harshly, with only a quarter giving the General Court an A (5 percent) or B (20 percent).
Supporters of the governor may be quick to point out that Healey is digging out of a hole that predated her administration. They certainly have a point. During Charlie Baker’s two terms, the T was led by a series of general managers with a curious lack of transit experience, including the former research director at the conservative Pioneer Institute and a former Texas energy executive whose firm was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Under these GMs the T repeatedly used money from its operating budget to make capital improvements, some of which may not have even been made. This budgetary shell game created operating deficits, which spurred fare hikes, service cuts, and a rare rebuke from the state’s congressional delegation. Since 2022, the T has been under a microscope from the Federal Transit Administration after a series of safety lapses that put riders and track workers at risk.
Most recently, the Boston Globe reported that T officials had known about construction flaws on the rails of the brand new Green Line Extension since before the service opened in 2021 but failed to tell the Healey administration. A Baker spokesman denied the governor’s office had been told of the problem, placing the governor, who built his political brand on competent, hands-on management, out of the loop instead of in on a cover-up.
The litany of problems at the T have taken their toll in terms of public confidence in the system and transportation generally. A fall 2022 poll found that only 23 percent of voters statewide thought the T was any better than when Baker took office in 2015; 33 percent thought it had gotten worse during his tenure. Voters also had low opinions of transportation writ-large: three-quarters rated the condition of the state’s transportation infrastructure as fair (5 percent) or poor (26 percent).
But in the same poll, 65 percent at least somewhat approved of Baker’s handling of transportation, about the same as his 67 percent favorable rating. But only 11 percent “strongly approved,” so the shape of that approval is not that different than the 62 percent who gave Maura Healey an A, B, or C for her handling of transportation.
So residents have low opinions of transportation and the T, but they are giving governors a passing mark. Why the disconnect? One reason is there is plenty of blame to go around. Past polls and focus groups have pointed the finger at the T itself, the Legislature, and governors. Some focus group participants have blamed the Boston mayor, who until recently didn’t even have a seat on the T’s board.
The opaque and complicated governance of the T may also be making it hard for residents to know who is accountable. When Baker wanted to create a new board to oversee the T in 2015, a key lawmaker was critical, saying the plan would create another layer of bureaucracy between the T and elected officials. Whether that was the intention or not, Baker’s seeming invulnerability to problems at the T suggests those layers of bureaucracy have had an insulating effect.
It may also be that approval on transportation is more a function of general approval or favorability. Baker was perennially among the most popular governors in the nation, with approvals and favorable ratings in the high 60s and 70s. Healey’s job approval is in the 50s, with favorable ratings slightly lower, in part because a sizable share of residents remain unsure about her or do not recognize her name. Healey’s numbers are very healthy, but they are a step or two down from Baker’s stratospheric popularity.
Most residents are simply not following state level politics closely. Their general impression of the governor is likely their starting point for approval on any given issue. They then calibrate up or down based on whatever they’ve heard recently in the news about a given issue. It follows then that Healey may be polling lower than Baker on transportation, even if many of the issues she is dealing with can be traced back to her predecessor.
Richard Parr is senior research director at the MassINC Polling Group.