Plaintiffs flock to turnpike lawsuit
1,650 join fight to force refunds for toll-payers
A class-action lawsuit that seeks to repay Massachusetts Turnpike toll-payers hundreds of millions of dollars and provide future relief from what their lawyers call "illegal taxes" now includes 1,650 plaintiffs from 21 states, according to the lead attorney.
The plaintiffs, who include residents from 212 Massachusetts cities and towns, argue that their tolls are unfairly being used to pay for the Big Dig, rather than for the cost of using the turnpike, said Jan R. Schlichtmann, who gained fame through the book and film "A Civil Action."
Schlichtmann's legal team has also expanded to include Scott Harshbarger, a former state attorney general; Daniel B. Winslow, the chief legal counsel to former governor Mitt Romney, and Donald Griswold, a Washington-based partner in the international law firm Reed Smith LLP.
"This is a simple case of fairness and equity," Harshbarger said yesterday. "It's time for the courts, the Legislature, and the governor to fix this inequity and provide financial relief to toll-payers."
The lawsuit, filed last month in Middlesex District Court, argues that the Massachusetts Turnpike Author ity must reimburse as much as $300 million to toll-payers and change how it uses the tolls it collects. The lawsuit asserts that 58 percent of Mass. Pike tolls are used to finance Big Dig roads.
To pay for the returned tolls, the state would have to choose between raising taxes, imposing tolls on Interstate 93, or requiring the Turnpike Authority to sell some of its real estate, they said.
"We have to figure out how to make amends for the past," Schlichtmann said.
Turnpike Authority officials declined to comment.
Harshbarger and Winslow said they were drawn to the case because they think toll-payers who commute from the west and the North Shore have unfairly borne the brunt of Big Dig costs.
"The turnpike's diversion of toll receipts is part of a disturbing trend we're seeing across the country," Griswold said. "This is another desperate cash-strapped state using illegal and unconstitutional means to raise badly needed revenues."
The lawyers are calling for Beacon Hill to pass reforms that would mandate that the turnpike's tolls be used for maintenance, capital expenditures, and operating expenses of the road on which they are collected.
Such a provision has been approved by the House in a budget amendment, but it was not included in the final version of the bill the Senate passed. The differences are being worked out by a conference committee.
"Without this provision, the legislative efforts to reform are mostly moving boxes around on the organizational chart," Winslow said.
Next week, the lawyers will argue in court that the judge should attach all the authority's real estate assets to the lawsuit, so they cannot be sold or liquidated before the case is resolved. 