Turnpike OK's toll increases, awaits decision on gas tax

Tolls at the Ted Williams Tunnel (above) and Sumner Tunnel could increase to $7. (Globe Staff Photo / David L. Ryan)

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority approved a set of staggered toll hikes yesterday that could be eliminated if the Legislature increases the state gas tax.

The toll hikes could eventually cost commuters hundreds of dollars per year. In the meantime, the complex plan is likely to baffle them.

Members of the Legislature, who had asked the authority to delay the vote, were furious at the Patrick administration, which controls the Turnpike Authority, for pushing the hikes through before filing a gas tax bill that could have averted them.

"This nonsense is either politically naïve or political hardball," said Representative Thomas P. Conroy, a Wayland Democrat. "If you raise the tolls, people do not trust the board to rescind a toll hike."

The toll hike plan that passed 4 to 1 yesterday, forged amid months of protests and public deliberations, comes in two steps. The first increase takes effect March 29, bringing cash tolls to $1.50 at the Allston-Brighton and Weston tolls and to $5.50 at the Ted Williams and Sumner tunnels.

That's an increase of 25 cents at the turnpike booths inside Route 128 and $2 at the tunnels. Fast Lane users will continue to get a discount.

The second hike takes effect July 1, bringing cash tolls to $2 at the booths inside Route 128 and $7 at the tunnels.

"Bad idea," said Jim Boyle, a Beverly resident who works in Boston. "Make one plan. That's why things don't seem to get done the way they should in this state."

Board members said both rounds of toll increases can be averted if the Legislature increases the gas tax before they take effect. If the Legislature raises the gas tax after tolls go up, the toll increases will be rolled back, they promised.

"There's no confusion," said James A. Aloisi Jr., state transportation secretary and chairman of the turnpike board. "We've been very clear that we need to do this or we face financial disaster on the turnpike."

The unusual arrangement follows more than a year of public and private concern over the Turnpike Authority's financial situation. Commuters were outraged about earlier plans to raise $100 million more in tolls all at once, forming protest organizations and showing up by the hundreds to rallies and public hearings. Yesterday's vote prompted the state Republican Party to plan a rally this morning in front of the State House.

Governor Deval Patrick has promised repeatedly since late 2007 to present a comprehensive transportation restructuring plan, but was unable to do so in time to avoid Tuesday's vote.

Legislators have complained that Patrick's latest plan, announced last week but not filed in the form of a bill until yesterday afternoon, pressures them to act quickly on the gas tax to avoid the toll hike.

Aloisi was happy yesterday to turn up the pressure further, pointing out that legislators had passed a bill in a single day after the Big Dig tunnel ceiling collapsed in 2006 and asserting that Patrick's transportation overhaul can be deliberated and passed before the toll increases take effect.

But legislators, even those supportive of a higher gas tax, said they would have trouble rallying support for Patrick's gas tax increase with the toll hikes already passed.

"It crystallizes the issue of tolls versus gas tax, but there's a public process that needs to take place," said Representative David P. Linsky, a Natick Democrat.

Turnpike board members said they had no choice but to approve an increase yesterday. They are concerned that the authority's slipping credit rating will otherwise decline to junk bond status, risking hundreds of millions in lump-sum payments owed to pay off risky and complex investments and jeopardizing other state agencies' ability to borrow.

The first hike is meant to get the authority through the end of its current budget year, by raising $12.8 million to plug an $8.1 million budget gap. The second phase of the toll increase would raise $100 million a year, divided mostly between debt payments and structural upgrades to roads and bridges that have been falling apart.

Without a gas tax or some other source of money, the authority predicts another toll increase on or near July 2014, when debt payments - mostly from the Big Dig - balloon.

Whether or not the first toll increase takes effect, the heavily indebted Turnpike Authority will immediately begin spending thousands of dollars preparing for a new toll rate.

Alan LeBovidge, executive director, said he does not know the full cost of the change, but guesses it will cost $25,000 to $50,000 each time a new rate is set.

The biggest cost is reprogramming computer software for electronic toll collections, which will begin immediately, he said. The authority will not replace signs for what may be only temporary prices; they'll put new covers on the old ones, he said.

Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.