Gov. Charlie Baker has said he's against a gas tax as a means to reduce congestion, instead opting for a regional effort called the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI), which is developing a cap-and-invest program to drive down emissions from road traffic.
Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung told Boston Public Radio Friday she thinks Baker might be more amenable to a gas tax if it was somehow tied to the TCI.
"There's a lot of talk of this idea where perhaps there's a temporary increase in the gas tax until the Transportation & Climate Initiative fee kicks in," she said. "That involves getting other states to sign on adding fees to fossil fuels, which the Baker administration does not call a tax but it will raise the cost of gas at the pump, so in effect it acts like a tax. I think if the legislature can kind of marry those two ideas, I think it has a higher chance of getting past the governor."
