Group suing on tolls has new figures
Say only half of drivers pay for roads
A new study of local traffic data, paid for by a group suing the state, found that only about half of the drivers who use highways and tunnels in Greater Boston pay the tolls that help finance their maintenance costs.
The study, commissioned by those who filed a class-action lawsuit that seeks to repay Massachusetts Turnpike toll payers hundreds of millions dollars, found that about 46 percent of the estimated 632,000 vehicles that use local portions of Interstate 93, Interstate 90, and the Callahan and Sumner tunnels, pay tolls.
The new numbers will be cited as key evidence at a hearing in Woburn Superior Court tomorrow about why the court should issue a restraining order against the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, requiring it to immediately change how it uses the money it collects from its tollbooths, said Jan R. Schlichtmann, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney.
They argue that while the case is heard, the money should only be used to pay for maintenance on the roads where the tolls are collected and not to finance the debt and maintenance costs of the Big Dig.
“Every toll payer is paying not just for himself but for someone else to use the system for free,’’ said Schlichtmann, who gained fame through the book and film “A Civil Action.’’
“This is the first time that someone has bothered to calculate the ratio between the toll payers being forced to pay for the entire system, compared with all the people who use the system,’’ Schlichtmann said. “It shows clearly that the minority is paying for the majority to use the system for free. That is unfair, unconstitutional, inequitable, and wrong.’’
He added: “I don’t see there being any more important fact than this.’’
State officials questioned the numbers and said they had not received any information about how they were calculated.
They declined to address the relevance of the figures, citing the ongoing litigation.
“The suit is baseless, and we’re vigorously defending our position,’’ said Jeff Mullen, executive director of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.
The lawsuit, filed in May in Middlesex District Court, argues that the Turnpike Authority must reimburse as much as $300 million to toll payers.
The lawsuit asserts that 58 percent of Massachusetts Turnpike tolls are used to cover maintenance, operating, and debt costs related to the $15 billion Big Dig.
The study used state data from 2005 and 2007 for vehicles that used the local highways and tunnels, said Kim Hazarvartian, a traffic engineer with TEPP LLC, a traffic engineering firm in North Andover, N.H.
He said he will be paid about $3,000 for his work.
The lawsuit, which is being supported by former Democratic state attorney general Scott Harshbarger and Daniel B. Winslow, the chief legal counsel to former Republican governor Mitt Romney, includes more than 1,500 plaintiffs, many of whom commute from the west and the North Shore and feel that they have unfairly borne the brunt of Big Dig costs.
The lawyers have called for the Legislature to pass a law requiring that the turnpike’s tolls be used for maintenance, capital expenditures, and operating expenses of the road on which they are collected.
If the plaintiffs win, the lawyers have said, the state would probably have to choose between raising taxes, imposing tolls on Interstate 93, or requiring the Turnpike Authority to sell some of its real estate.
