The division of the Millionaires' Tax is half the money goes to school and other half is transit. Stefal posted the current break down and Stilin posted the official structure. They can only spend based on what is budgeted. Any excess amount goes to a reserve fund, but future years can budget that extra money into future budget.
Of the budgeted $1 billion of the past year. The division was $510 million went to schools and the other $490 million went to transportation. But only $186 million went to the MBTA (with $5m for reduced fares and $181m to capital projects).
If they start budgeting future spending to be $1.4 billion (they collected closer to $2 billion the past year) or more, then there shouldn't be an annual fight or lingering resentment from public schools. They get their half as stipulated which is the most they are allowed to get regardless of the state of the MBTA.
Assuming that's the plan, then it is notable that the opportunity cost, from the perspective of the MBTA, is as only a fraction of the of the millionaire's tax. They were only getting $186 million of the budgeted billion before. I think it's reasonable to assume they would have still only get a fraction of the of the "transit half" into the future too. But if the gap get closed by purely the Millionaire's tax, then it does mean the other transit departments (previously $100m for local roads, $164m MassDOT Highway, $40m for MassDOT Rail and Transit) will be left mad and fighting for a piece.
Well if they budget $2b, then I guess there's enough to cover the $700m gap and still roughly enough to the other departments (as questionable if the Millionaire's Tax was meant for MassDOT Highway).
Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, commissioned by the MBTA board who been seeing the writing on the wall, did the math. I'm having trouble finding the original publication but NBC Boston has the breakdown. Congestion Pricing would raise about $220m to $440m. You might be speaking off-hand, but frankly it's not so simple that rolling out plate readers over 2 months and charging tolls will the hole is plug - not even for current crisis, much less forever.
In they same article, they did list out a whole bunch of other ideas - motor vehicle excise tax ($36m to $570m depending on rate increase), gas tax ($22m to $356m depending on rates), increase highway tolls ($22 to $80m for same), Vehicle Registration Fees ($33m to $104m), increased share of sale tax ($335m, if share raised to .01 to .0125), and roughly five other ideas that all falls under three categories in the end.
Personally, it should be a mix of everything. Politically, it should be ordered in a way to avoid political backlash. So first things to use are Motor Vehicle Excise, Vehicle Registration, ...and Millionaire's Tax. Congestion Pricing, Gas Tax, Tolls, and Fares (personally, raising it to .10 to $2.50 should be discussed), but should try to be avoided until necessary (the first 3 theoretically can already close the $700 million) from likely backlash against it.
