Amendment #1274 to H4700

RTA Funding Distribution

Mr. Orrall of Lakeville moves to amend the bill by striking section 58 in its entirety and inserting in place thereof the following:

“SECTION 58. Notwithstanding any special or general law to the contrary, for fiscal year 2023,

of the $94,000,000 transferred in item 1595-6370 of section 2E, $90,500,000 shall be considered operating assistance and distributed to regional transit authorities as determined by a formula that is based upon clearly established metrics and principles and that has been agreed to by each RTA and approved by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, hereinafter referred to as the department. The operating assistance distributed shall be spent to advance the goals and targets as agreed to in an updated FY22/23 Bilateral Memoranda of Understanding, which shall also consider each RTA's comprehensive regional transit plan and shall be entered into by each regional transit authority and the department. Of the amount to be distributed under item 1595-6370 of section 2E, $3,500,000 shall be distributed as performance grants to regional transit authorities. The performance grants shall be distributed to regional transit authorities that best demonstrate compliance with, or a commitment to, the service decisions, quality of service and environmental sustainability recommendations from the report of the task force on regional transit authority performance and funding established pursuant to section 72 of chapter 154 of the acts of 2018. The department may require each regional transit authority to provide data on ridership, customer service and satisfaction, asset management and financial performance, including farebox recovery, and shall compile any collected data into a report on the performance of regional transit authorities and each authority's progress toward meeting the performance metrics established in the memorandum of understanding. The report shall be filed with the clerks of the senate and house of representatives, the senate and house committees on ways and means and the joint committee on transportation not later than December 31, 2022.”