MBTA Pension Brouhaha

Today’s Globe has a brutal piece on the MBTA’s pension plan and the unbelievable payouts it generates. One of the highlights is former MBTA General Manager Michael Mulhern’s payout. He retired as GM several years ago and got the proverbial soft landing as head of the T’s pension plan. At age 48, he collects a pension of $130,000 and a salary of $225,000.

The T’s plan does this because it has many of the crazy features of the other public pension systems (read more about those here) plus it has no minimum age feature, so folks can retire as soon as they get their 20 years in, even if they are in the prime of their careers.

To add insult to injury, the MBTA’s plan is unlike any other public pension system in the state and is a contractual creature of collective bargaining. So there’s no oversight or disclosure of their activities.

Before we raise the gas tax/increase tolls/raise more revenue, let’s get the T’s financial house in order.