For whom the Pike tolls?
THE BELEAGUERED Massachusetts commuter, barely shaking off decades of Big Dig construction headaches, now finds the Turnpike Authority switching its disruptive roadwork projects to daytime hours in order to save money. This on top of threats by Pike directors to raise tolls - perhaps as high as $5 at the Ted Williams Tunnel - and the elimination of toll collectors, which is cost-efficient but creates major backups when those without Fast Lane transponders cram into the few remaining manned toll booths. How much abuse can drivers take?
The trouble is that the Turnpike Authority has a $2.5 billion debt and no obvious source or revenue other than tolls to pay for it. Day by day its credit rating inches closer to junk bond status. It needs a cash infusion. But residents west of Boston unfairly bear the brunt of paying for the Big Dig, which also benefits drivers of Interstate 93 and the state's business climate as a whole.
The fairest solution to the Pike's fiscal mess is a hike in the gasoline tax, which at 21 cents a gallon hasn't been increased since 1990. The idea is gaining support from a few legislators representing the western suburbs - and from policy analysts who are insulated from the voters' ire. But House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and Governor Patrick says that no gas tax increase will be considered until every last efficiency is squeezed out of the system. "We owe the public a demonstration that we have tried everything," Patrick said last week.
To that end, Patrick is recommending reforms of all the state's transportation agencies. He wants pension reform at both the Pike and the MBTA, and he plans to submit legislation by the end of the year dissolving the quasi-public Turnpike Authority altogether, so that he can consolidate policy, streamline expenses, and restructure all the agencies' debts. At $8.1 billion, the T's debt dwarfs the Turnpike's. But at least the T did not engage in exotic debt "swaption" deals, which the Wall Street rating agency
Whether Patrick's consolidation plan is the salvation of the state's listing transportation agencies, a costly power grab, or simply a "sideshow," in the words of Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation president Mike Widmer, depends on the shape of the legislation. But the state clearly needs a permanent fix to its transportation debt if it ever hopes to raise the money to fix dangerously deficient roads and bridges or improve public transit.
Meanwhile, drivers pay an opportunity tax every time they are stuck in time-eating traffic jams or lose an axle to a yawning pothole - not to mention what they pay in aggravation. And relief is still a long way off. 