State Rep. Denis Guyer, whose district is about as far away from a subway stop as one can get in Massachusetts, is peeved that MBTA vending machines give change in dollar coins rather than in paper currency. The Boston Globe‘s Glen Johnson reports that Guyer has filed legislation requiring that the T give back paper when a customer is owed more than $5. Not coincidentally, “the Dalton Democrat … lives in the same town as Crane & Co., the exclusive supplier of paper stock used to make dollar bills and other U.S. currency, and he’d like to preserve some jobs.” But he also argues that special interests are behind the dollar coin:
“I’m not going to apologize for fighting for jobs in my district. I think that’s one of the reasons people elect me to office. At the same time, the dollar coin has been wildly unpopular and the federal government and their friends in the mining industry keep fighting for the coin,” Guyer said.
MBTA manager Dan Grabauskas counters that it would be prohibitively expensive to make the switch to paper change.
At least the T has no stake in the great debate over whether to abolish the penny, a move that William Safire suggests and Barack Obama seems to like.