Last Monday, protesters and students swarmed the State House and the nearby Transportation Building to voice their opposition to proposed budget tweaks by the Mass Bay Transit Authority, including raising fares, cutting buses, and scaling back E Line service.

The cuts are a bad idea. A tremendously bad idea. Trimming service and hiking fares will do nothing long-term to save money; it will hurt people who cannot afford to take other means of transportation, starve the economy and ultimately weaken our world-class city.

Stop obsessing over profitability or balancing the budget with the MBTA. The first priority – beyond costs, beyond deficits, beyond finances – should be getting people from one place to another within the city quickly, cleanly and painlessly. If that means the cost of fares is insufficient to cover the bill – and if you do public transit right, it damn well should be insufficient – the state should sign a check for the difference.

Public transit should not make money. If public transit ever, ever makes money, either the fares are too high or the service is too slim. The subway, the buses, the trolleys; these things are what make cities attractive, what make cities livable, what make cities thrive. Any money the state loses in funding public transit is paid back many times over in increased economic activity.

Boston is one of the slower growing metropolitan areas in the country. If we want to stay a hub of academia, of business, and of culture, we need to get more people. And more people aren’t much good if they can’t get anywhere.

The legislature needs to double down on the MBTA. Build the North-South rail that’s been so long delayed and declined. Finish the Urban Ring project, laying down rails to boost ridership among communities outside Boston proper and provide extra transfer stations besides the downtown hub. Upgrade the Green Line – maybe build that extension into Somerville that the MBTA is required to build to mitigate Big Dig pollution. Extend service past last call. The more money invested in public transit, the more money is transited by the public.

I don’t care how the legislature does it. Raise taxes on gas to incentivize ridership, give a larger percent of the state sales tax to the authority, sell sponsorships for stations – I don’t care if I ride the Subway Eat Fresh Subway so long as it can get me from point A to point B.

We need to make public transit a priority. Without a strong MBTA, we will shrivel up as a metro area. We cannot afford to not afford the T.

–Michael Denham can be reached at [email protected]