MBTA Cuts Ahead: COVID Causes Commuters To Consider Comprehensive Changes

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Host Joe Selvaggi and Pioneer Institute Senior Fellow Charlie Chieppo discuss the reasons for the recently proposed cuts to MBTA service, and offer suggestions as to how the agency’s leadership could use this crisis to improve the service’s long-term health.

Related: Read Charlie Chieppo & Jim Stergios’ recent op-ed in Commonwealth magazine: “Contracting with private providers could avert MBTA cuts.”

Guest:

Charlie Chieppo is a Pioneer senior fellow. Previously, he was policy director in Massachusetts’ Executive Office for Administration and Finance and directed Pioneer’s Shamie Center for Restructuring Government. While in state government, Charlie led the successful effort to reform the Commonwealth’s public construction laws, helped develop and enact a new charter school funding formula, and worked on state workforce issues such as pension reform and easing state restrictions against privatization. In 2000, Charlie was a member of the MBTA’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Forward Funding and has written and commented extensively on T and other transportation issues. He was a contributor to “MBTA Capital Spending Derailed by Expansion,” by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation with Pioneer Institute, which won the Government Research Association’s “Most Distinguished Research” award. Chieppo is a graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication and Vanderbilt University Law School.

Get new episodes of Hubwonk in your inbox!

Related Posts:

Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court Case

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with writer and historian Ramesh Ponnuru about the Supreme Court case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

COVID’s Unintended Victims: Traditional Diseases Overlooked at the Public’s Peril

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute’s Visiting Fellow in Life Sciences, Dr. Bill Smith, about his newest research paper, “An “Impending Tsunami” in Mortality from Traditional Diseases,” which sounds the alarm that the public health community’s focus on COVID-19 has caused many to avoid seeking medical attention for other illnesses. As a result, more Americans are dying from fear of COVID than from the disease itself.

Vaccine Development Renaissance: Pandemic Brings Niche Industry into Mainstream

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with virologist, Dr. Peter Kolchinsky, about the explosion of vaccine technologies and innovations brought into the spotlight by the massive investment to fight the pandemic, and dives deeply into the exciting promise of vaccines to combat an ever-widening range of disease.

Shifting COVID-19 Goalposts: Moving from Zero Infections to Zero Deaths

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with surgeon and author Dr. Marty Makary about the power and durability of vaccines, natural immunity and clinical therapies, that are overshadowed by the public health community's continued target of zero COVID-19 infections.

Climate’s Brighter Future: COP26 Ignores Its Own IPCC Report

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks to Prof. Roger Pielke, Jr., Professor of Climate Science at the University of Colorado, about the widening gap between the catastrophic predictions proffered at the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, and the less dire observations contained in the UN’s own recent IPCC report.

Building Budgets Bigger: Unpacking Who Pays the Trillion Dollar Plus Tax Bill

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Kyle Pomerleau, senior fellow on federal tax policy at American Enterprise Institute about the Build Back Better Act now in Congress, to understand how those new taxes will affect individuals, business, and the economy.

Supply Chains Understood: Covid’s Global Demand Stress Test

https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chtbl.com/track/G45992/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/1148317750-pioneerinstitute-hubwonk-ep-78-supply-chains-understood-covids-global-demand-stress-test.mp3 This…

Competition Amongst States: How Tax Policy Drives Residents to Seek Better Value

This week on Hubwonk (our debut video & audio edition), Host Joe Selvaggi talks with research analyst Andrew Mikula about the findings from his recent report, A Timely Tax Cut, in which he explored the relationship between state tax rates and policy and the direction of interstate migration.

Rent Control Re-Explored: What the Past Can Teach the Future

Hubwonk Host Joe Selvaggi talks with economist and MIT Professor Chris Palmer about his research and analysis of the effects of rent control in Cambridge during its 25-year implementation and in the aftermath of its repeal.

Defusing Ideological Tribalism: Methods for Communicating Across Political Language Barriers

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with economist and author Dr. Arnold Kling about his book, The Three Languages of Politics, Talking Across the Political Divides, which outlines the dynamics of political tribalism, defines the respective world view and vocabulary of progressives, conservatives, and libertarianism, and offers methods for communicating and persuading across ideological lines in a way that fosters civil, productive, public debate.

Marathon Endurance Test: Leaders Pave the Way for Boston’s Return

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Boston Athletic Association’s CEO Tom Grilk about the leadership challenges of cancelling the world’s oldest continuous marathon, a $200-million benefit to the region involving eight municipalities and 10,000 volunteers, in the face of a pandemic - and how cooperation among stakeholders brought back the epic event to be run this October.

Economic Long Covid: Mixed Health Messages for Baystate Businesses

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with NFIB’s Chris Carlozzi and Retailers Association of Massachusetts' Jon Hurst about the challenges and future prospects for businesses as they adapt to widespread consumer confusion caused by vague and often conflicting public health messaging from our political leadership.