Break in tolls on Pike may go

Budget proposal avoids higher fee; Cuts Fast Lane, other discounts

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority unveiled a plan yesterday that would eliminate discounts for Fast Lane users and residents of some Boston neighborhoods. By scrapping the discount for more than 1 million people, the authority would be able to avoid another across-the-board toll increase.

Executive director Alan LeBovidge unveiled the idea as part of an ambitious budget proposal that he acknowledged could risk further damaging the authority's already battered bond rating. The proposed budget would also dip into the agency's depleted reserves, ask for additional help from the Legislature, and seek further cost reductions through restructuring as part of an effort to avoid an overall toll increase in January, which had long been seen as almost inevitable.

The Turnpike Authority has raised fares every three years since 2001. The last increase was in January 2007.

The plan was met with immediate skepticism, both at the meeting and on Beacon Hill, where the Turnpike Authority would need the Legislature's support to end the discounts.

"This has zero chance of passing," said Representative David Linsky, a Natick Democrat who chairs the Metrowest legislative caucus. "I will guarantee you that Metrowest legislators will do everything in our power to keep the Turnpike Authority from singling out Metrowest commuters for a toll increase, which is what the effect would be of removing the discount program."

Board member Mary Connaughton also objected. Like Linsky, she said that "eliminating the Fast Lane discount is a toll increase." She also worried that using reserves as a stopgap would turn the authority's bonds into junk bonds and leave the board without much cushion in case of emergency.

"We're taking a big gamble here, a big gamble," she said. "I just think this is very dangerous."

Both discount programs were approved as a way to appease those who felt unduly burdened by the $15 billion Big Dig. The discount for residents of East Boston, the North End, and South Boston took effect in 1995 to help compensate for the project's construction and the disarray that came with it.

Residents of those neighborhoods pay just 40 cents for tolls at the Ted Williams and Sumner tunnels, which would otherwise cost $3.50. By September 2007, more than 15,000 people received the discount.

About 1 million drivers benefit from the Fast Lane discount, which the Turnpike Authority board approved in 2002, to offset the impact of recent toll increases and to placate commuters and legislators from the western suburbs who complained they were paying a disproportionate amount of the Big Dig's cost. Later that year, the Legislature wrote it into law.

But yesterday, LeBovidge cast the Fast Lane discount in a different light, saying that it "was initially put in as an incentive" to encourage drivers to join the program and buy transponders, an incentive, he said, that is no longer necessary. "I think people get it."

The discount, he said, was always supposed to be contingent on whether the agency could afford it. When it became law, he said, the Legislature issued an unfunded mandate that the authority can no longer afford.

Yesterday lawmakers sympathized with LeBovidge's budget bind, but said that dropping the discounts makes an unequal situation even more unbalanced.

"I understand the Turnpike Authority is in a very difficult fiscal situation, but eliminating the Fast Lane discount should be off the table," said Senator Karen Spilka, an Ashland Democrat. "We are the most affected. It's patently unfair that the Metrowest has to bear this burden to begin with to pay for the Big Dig."

Legislators from other parts of the state also appeared hesitant to strip commuters of this perk, because of its impact on the western suburbs.

"The authority is at or close to bleeding red ink," said Representative Joseph F. Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat who chairs the House Transportation Committee.

"They need to look at ways to close the gap between revenues and expenses," he said. ". . . But this is an equity issue for Metrowest commuters, and I think they have a valid concern."

Rather than dip into reserves and cut discounts, Connaughton urged more thorough reform of the system. Chairman Bernard Cohen said that must happen eventually, but the the plan is a promising short-term solution.

Until long-term reforms can be made, he said, the board had to choose a lesser evil.

The Turnpike Authority is facing a $70 million deficit this budget year and a $100 million deficit in next year's spending plan. Recent restructuring saved $15 million, LeBovidge said. But that is not enough.

According to his plan, eliminating the discount program would allow the authority to raise more than $18 million. The budget would also use $36 million of the $71 million reserves.

If the plan goes through as proposed, the board will have done everything possible to avoid a toll increase, LeBovidge said. That way, he said, if discussion next year turns to higher tolls, board members will have a clear conscience that they have "left no stone unturned."

Ultimately, the board chose to approve an interim operating budget for the next two months and to table LeBovidge's proposal for at least a month.

Members acknowledged they cannot delay a decision much longer, but said they wanted a better idea of how dipping into reserves might affect the bond rating and whether the Legislature might offer the agency any kind of financial support.

Some members also wanted to review proposals for various levels of toll increases, which would have to be approved this fall in order to take effect by early next year.