Ending Pike tolls is called illegal

A key state lawmaker said yesterday that a substantial provision of the Romney administration's plan to end tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike west of Route 128 might be illegal.

Representative Joseph F. Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat who is cochairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation, said that lawyers have told him the statute governing the transfer of the Turnpike Authority to the state Highway Department does not allow nontoll revenue to be used for anything except the operation and maintenance of the turnpike.

Under the plan the Turnpike Authority board tentatively approved Wednesday, the state would borrow $87 million against the value of the turnpike's service plazas to help pay off the $199 million the authority still owes on the western part of the turnpike. The other $112 million would come from the Turnpike Authority's cash reserves.

``I believe, and others have told me they believe, this will be a problem," Wagner said. ``If it can be done as easily as people suggest it could be done, they could have done it before."

He is among the critics who say the move is designed to help Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey's campaign for governor and is shortsighted when the state's transportation system faces numerous budget shortfalls.

While the Romney administration insists the plan does not require the Legislature's blessing, Wagner said he plans to review it in the Legislature.

A spokesman for Romney said the administration is certain the plan will work.

``We're confident of our legal analysis," spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said yesterday in an e-mailed reply to questions. ``The turnpike board has the authority to take down the tolls and redeploy their resources to make that happen.

``It's not surprising that the people who all along have been protecting the patronage, the inefficiency, and the waste at the Turnpike Authority are now trying to figure out how they can throw a wrench into the process."

The Turnpike Authority board said Wednesday it will retain financial advisers and investment bankers to review the change before taking a final vote Nov. 15.

Under the plan, starting June 30, the tolls would end between Springfield and Weston, saving passenger vehicles as much as $2.70 each way. Tolls for passenger cars were eliminated on the western portion of the turnpike from the New York line to Springfield in 1996.

To go all the way into downtown Boston, eastbound motorists would still pay $1 at the Weston tollbooths and another $1 at the Allston-Brighton tollbooths. Westbound drivers from downtown Boston would only pay the $1 Allston-Brighton toll.

Toll collections on the western turnpike dropped for the first time in six years last year to $113 million, according to figures released yesterday by the Massachusetts Highway Department.

Tolls collected from Weston east, including the harbor tunnels, have consistently increased since 2001, bringing in about $143 million in 2005.

Eliminating the tolls would cost the authority $114 million in annual revenue. Romney administration officials said the loss would be partly offset by saving nearly $40 million by laying off about half of the authority's 400 toll collectors.

Romney took control of the authority following the fatal ceiling collapse July 10 in the Interstate 90 connector tunnel and appointed Eric Kriss, his former finance chief, to review the authority's finances.

Kriss's report said that manual collection of tolls had become too expensive, while razing the tollbooths would reduce accidents and congestion.

The report also recommended ending turnpike tolls from Route 128 east, with the exception of the tunnels to and from Logan International Airport, by Dec. 31, 2007.

That change would require approval by the Legislature, a move the Turnpike Authority board said they were not ready to make.

Mac Daniel can be reached at mdaniel@globe.com.