MBTA Board Approves $3 Billion Budget for Rapid Hiring – NBC Boston

MBTA supervisors unanimously approved a $3 billion budget Tuesday that will increase future spending and eat into the agency’s savings, creating a major funding gap expected to hit next summer.

The MBTA board has given the green light to a fiscal year 2025 plan that increases spending by 11% over fiscal 2024 while expecting a 10% increase in revenue, some from one-time sources.

T officials expect the spending plan will continue to fund a rapid hiring and repair campaign they say is necessary to improve services that have been unreliable for years.

To balance the books, the budget would pull $307 million from pandemic reserves and reallocate $191 million in federal preventive maintenance funds to the operational side of the ledger.

Board members approved the plan, which relies on dwindling non-recurring resources, minutes after hearing a stark warning about the 2026 budget outlook from the regulator representing the cities and towns that help finance Project T.

MBTA officials expect to face a budget gap of nearly $700 million in fiscal year 2026, when they may turn to Beacon Hill for help as the agency tries to address infrastructure problems and achieve service levels that can boost ridership.

“It’s a huge gap and we don’t see a clear path to plug it at this stage,” Roy Epstein, a member of the Belmont Select Board who chairs the operating budget oversight committee on the MBTA’s independent Advisory Council. “I believe this will require coordinated action at all levels of government.”