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In the ranks of famous bus drivers, Michael Mulhern ought to be put right up there with Ralph Kramden. The difference is that Ralph's get-rich-quick schemes never worked, while Mulhern's has come off without a hitch.

Mulhern joined the MBTA as a driver. He worked his way up the ladder to the transit authority's top job, general manager, before retiring in 2005. Although a youthful 46 when he stepped down, any MBTA employee who has worked there for more than 23 years can retire with a full pension, regardless of age.

Thus, at 46, Mulhern began getting his MBTA pension: $130,000 a year.

Then Mulhern took a new job: executive director of the MBTA Employees Retirement Fund. The position pays a hefty $225,000 a year. (Even at that price, we can't tell what kind of job Mulhern is doing, because the state's top court has declared the retirement fund "private" - a neat trick, considering the MBTA gets millions in public money, and the retirement fund gets $40 million a year from the MBTA.)

Thus, the T pays Michael Mulhern, who is not yet 50, $350,000 a year for being simultaneously retired from the MBTA and employed by the MBTA. The mind reels. Of course, Mulhern has done nothing wrong. He is playing entirely by the rules. But what rules! His cushy deal is just a symptom of the legal larceny and incestuous insiderism that has left the T damaged and dysfunctional.

As commuters know all too well, MBCR, the private consortium that operates the suburban train lines, has hardly covered itself in glory since it took over management of the rail system in 2003. As of last fall, 30 percent of the trains were arriving late. On the Worcester/Framingham line, the problem was so acute that MBTA officials were forced to take action - not by fining MBCR but by changing the schedule, a sleight of hand that turned MBCR's tardy trains into timely ones. Last week's late is this week's on-time.

Despite all that, last December the MBTA board voted unanimously - after only 15 minutes of debate - to pay MBCR $700 million to run the trains for another three years.

There were conflicts of interest all over the boardroom. The board's chairman, Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen, had to step outside; he was an MBCR employee only a few years ago. Cohen had also worked for MBCR boss James O'Leary in the 1980s, when O'Leary was general manager of - you guessed it - the MBTA.

It looks as if the only piece of the state transit system in good working order is its revolving doors.

Not all of the T's problems are of its own making, though. Beacon Hill leaders love public transportation, but they loathe funding it. The state stopped directly funding the T in 1999, and the agency's key revenue sources - the sluggish sales tax, for one - are not keeping pace. Moreover, state initiatives like the new Greenbush line and the proposed South Coast line only add to the pressure on the agency.

On top of all that, the T is loaded with debt - for every dollar the MBTA spends, 27 cents goes to pay off old debts. Some of that debt comes from the Big Dig and should never have been the MBTA's in the first place.

"We're broke," the MBTA's beleaguered general manager, Dan Grabauskas, said last week, and independent sources back him up. According to the public interest group MassPIRG, the MBTA faces a "predictable fiscal train wreck" of mounting debt and declining ridership unless something is done.

There's no good reason why the people of Massachusetts can't have a decent transit system, just as residents of other states do.

Try as they might to foist the MBTA's problems onto so-called independent agencies and private companies, Beacon Hill lawmakers bear final responsibility for the transit authority's failings - there's a reason it's called public transportation. It's past time for Gov. Patrick and the Legislature to get the MBTA back on track. TED NESI is a Sun Chronicle staff writer. His column appears on Fridays. He can be reached at tnesi@thesunchronicle.com.