Q & A on the Status of Senate Amendment 1031 (the Keenan/Pacheco Amendment)

On Thursday May 25, 2017, the Massachusetts Senate adopted an amendment to the FY2018 state budget that would undermine the MBTA’s three-year exemption from the Pacheco Law, the MBTA’s one-of-a-kind anti-privatization law imposed by the legislature in 1993. The Senate amendment was filed at the behest of MBTA unions in an attempt to put the brakes on the MBTA’s plans to seek competitive bids on approximately one-third of its bus maintenance services, which cost more per hour of bus operation than at all other major transit agencies in the U.S.  The MBTA estimates that it could save up to 50 percent of its costs per hour of bus operation by doing so. This Q & A provides information about the status of the amendment.