Patrick Outlines Tax Plan for Transportation Needs, Including Green Line Extension

In his State of the Commonwealth Address, delivered Wednesday night, Gov. Deval Patrick outlined a tax proposal that he said would pay for the state's education and transportation needs.

In his statements, he mentioned the Green Line Extension one of the transportation projects his plan would help fund.

The plan calls to reduce sales tax in Massachusetts from 6.25 percent to 4.5 percent. All money from sales taxes would be dedicated a public works fund that would support transportation, school building and public infrastructure needs.

In turn, the plan calls for an increase in income taxes from 5.3 percent to 6.25 percent.

In regard to the state's transportation needs, the governor mentioned a number of projects, including the Green Line Extension, that would lead to a "21st century transportation network."

He said, "Imagine if you could depend on a bus or subway that came on time, was safe and comfortable and ran until a student at UMass Boston or a worker in a downtown tower finished up at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. Imagine if a young innovator in the Seaport District could get a fast train to an affordable apartment in New Bedford at the end of the day or the family in New Bedford had access to the work and social opportunities here in Boston.  Imagine if the Green Line ran to Medford and the commuter rail ran to Springfield and the Housatonic line was reopened between Pittsfield and New York. Imagine if you could drive at highway speeds the whole length of the Pike and let technology collect your tolls. Imagine that the interchanges on 128 in Canton and Woburn were smoothed out and you didn’t have to add 45 minutes to your commute at rush hour just to get through the bottlenecks."

"Just as in education," Patrick said, "the transportation plan shows us specific needs we all knew were unmet.  And just as in education, meeting those needs demands new revenue."