Now we know
Now we know why Mitt Romney so uncharacteristically yielded to Kerry Healey three weeks before the election when they disclosed their stunt -- I mean "plan" -- to end the tolls on most of the turnpike.
"There is no rational argument for maintaining this wasteful system," our future ex-lieutenant governor said at her news/campaign conference that day.
Where to begin? Let's start with the documents from the turnpike's own consultants, the ones the alleged newly transparent turnpike authority has declined to make public.
Tolls. Healey talked a lot about ending the tolls west of Route 128 and the "inequity" of sticking it to Western Massachusetts drivers. But does anyone recall "No New Taxes" Healey revealing toll increases in Greater Boston?
Now we know. An analysis by URS Engineering, the turnpike revenue consultant, lays out the cost -- in part -- of taking down the western toll booths. To cover the shortfall created by ending the tolls, URS developed two alternatives for raising tolls between Weston and Logan Airport. The options would raise the toll on a Logan-to-Weston trip from 50 cents to around $1.50 -- this on top of another toll increase scheduled for 2008. One variation would hike tolls on commercial vehicles only, doubling the toll for large trucks to about $31.50 from Logan to Weston.
"When were they planning to tell the public about this?" asks state Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan.
Tom Trimarco, Romney's secretary of administration and finance and a turnpike board member, predicted in a letter yesterday that the toll increases would be "modest . . . approximately 15 cents at each of Weston and Allston for passenger cars."
Consider: The Healey/Romney scheme would end tolls in Western Massachusetts, where 50 percent to 70 percent of the vehicles are from out of state, and raise them in Greater Boston, where most drivers are local. From the fine print: "It is assumed that Tobin Bridge tolls will be raised to the same levels and at same time as tunnel tolls; otherwise there will be traffic shifts to the bridge."
The law. Healey/Romney told us they would Free the Pike by using the turnpike's cash reserves and borrowing against the turnpike's service plazas or selling them. But the authority's bond counsel, Mintz Levin, has raised doubts about the plan and the only way to go ahead is to increase tolls in Greater Boston.
"As described herein," says Mintz Levin's confidential opinion, "we are unable to opine that Chapter 81A of Massachusetts General Laws permits the use of Western Turnpike reserves and amounts derived from a deployment of Western Turnpike service area revenues to provide debt service coverage for or to repay [eastern turnpike] Bonds."
Now we know that the Healey/Romney shell game was a three-legged stool. The two legs they told us about -- using the reserves and leveraging the service areas -- won't work without a toll increase, according to their bond counsel. And the third leg -- the toll hikes -- was going to be a surprise.
Romney's ouster of Matt Amorello was supposed to usher in a new era of openness at the Turnpike Authority. Romney looked swell in a hard hat in those heady first days of crisis. Since then we've learned that the turnpike re-employed Bechtel to repair the same tunnels it failed to properly construct . And now we've learned they were planning a toll increase for us when the candidate was safely out of town. Some transparency.
In the end the only ones to benefit from this useless campaign stunt will be the three big downtown law firms, the financial adviser, the investment banker, and the traffic and revenue consultant that will be sending big bills to the Turnpike Authority. Those bills, in turn, should be forwarded to the Healey for Governor Committee, c/o Prides Crossing.
Steve Bailey can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902. 
