On November 4th, Massachusetts voters will decide on a statewide ballot question that would eliminate a portion of the gas tax.  If Question 1 passes, it would be a step backwards, causing our roads, bridges, public transportation, bikeways and sidewalks to fall into further disrepair.  It will threaten the gains we’ve made towards a sustainable, healthy, and equitable transportation system.

We urgently need your help for NO on Question 1.

As you read this, more than half our bridges are deficient, unsafe or even closed from the Cape to the Berkshires.  Recent reforms and revenues have finally put us on the right track - but Question 1 would derail us, hurting our economy and compromising our safety.

Question 1 would eliminate a law that links the state gas tax to inflation. This transportation funding from gas tax indexing is constitutionally protected for transportation.  

To help grow the campaign to defeat Question 1, please do these things today:

1. Spread the Word.  Please share this information with your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues.

2. Sign up for updates.  Visit saferoadsbridges.com

3. Follow this campaign on Twitter @VoteNoOnQ1 and  #NoOnQ1MA.

We urge you to join us and vote NO on Question 1 on November 4^th!

For the past year, MACDC’s Boston Committee has been working with the Massachusetts Minority Contractors Association (MMCA) to sponsor the Boston Pilot Program, a joint effort to help six Boston CDCs increase their utilization of minority and women owned enterprises (M/WBEs) on 11 separate real estate projects across the City of Boston.   The program established the goal of ensuring that at least 30% of the work was done by MBEs and 10% by WBEs.  As of June 30, six of the projects were in construction and the other five were in various stages of pre-development. So far, the projects have contracted for slightly more than $95 million in hard and soft costs, with 36% of the total going to MBE’s, 9% going to WBE’s, with a total of 41% going to either a MBE or WBE (the numbers do not add up because we do not double count minority-women-owned businesses).  This means that the CDC-sponsored projects have generated a total of nearly $39 million in economic opportunity for minority- and women-owned businesses, with much more to come as these projects continue to move forward.  Working with MMCA, we will continue to try to hit the 10% goal for WBE participation and try to increase the MBE numbers for soft costs where the percentage is much lower (MBE’s earned 41% of the hard costs, but just 13% of the soft costs; WBE’s were at 9% for both hard and soft costs).