State Capitol Briefs – Afternoon Edition: Support Voiced for Outsourcing at the MBTA

A week after union officials urged MBTA overseers not to outsource work currently performed by public employees, a series of residents encouraged the T to consider privatization. Representatives from NAIOP, the commercial real estate developer organization, and the Massachusetts High Tech Council joined others on Monday advocating for privatization. Douglas Ciampi Jr., a 20-year-old from Westminster, said that if the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can privatize rockets, the T should “give the free market a chance.” Ciampi also said it took him less time to travel by train between Denmark and Sweden than to travel from Worcester to Boston. After lawmakers last year passed a three-year suspension at the T of the Pacheco law, which requires government agencies to submit privatization plans to the state auditor for approval, leadership at the T has advanced plans to privatize cash handling, inventory and maintenance of fare gates. Members of the audience wore stickers from the Fix Our T coalition that said, “Thank you for suspending the Pacheco law.”