Legislative leaders remain at odds over how to handle oversight and management of the MBTA, but Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said they will have a few more weeks of flexibility even after the existing board expires on June 30.
MBTA-related duties will revert to the broader Department of Transportation Board of Directors when the Fiscal and Management Control Board, which has been in place since June 2015, is set to dissolve at the end of the month.
Pollack noted during a Monday meeting of the two boards that MassDOT’s panel will not hold its next regular meeting until July 27. The group will officially take over control on July 1, she said, but the meeting schedule adds three and a half weeks before the MassDOT board will actually need to take any formal action related to the T.
During that time, either a successor organization can be convened, as both Gov. Charlie Baker and the Senate have recommended, or the FMCB can be extended again, as the House proposed.
It remains unclear how lawmakers plan to resolve their differences. The House included FMCB extension language in a tax bill it passed in March, and the Senate approved a bill that would create a new MBTA board of directors on June 11.
The House has not acted on the Senate’s proposal, nor have the branches established a conference committee to negotiate an agreement.
“I am optimistic after conversations with my colleagues in the Legislature that the Legislature understands the value of a governance board for the MBTA and is working across the House and the Senate and with the administration to put together a plan for the future of the T before it becomes necessary to turn it over to the MassDOT board,” Pollack said Monday.
The meeting Monday was the last formal meeting scheduled for the FMCB .
The board last week approved a extension that will keep Commuter Rail operator Keolis in place until at least 2025.
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June 23, 2020 at 08:10AM
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Pollack: July 1 a soft deadline for MBTA oversight board - Boston Herald
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