Pike board acts to end tolls west of Route 128
Healey takes the spotlight
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board moved yesterday to abolish all tolls on the turnpike west of Route 128, a sudden and sweeping policy shift less than three weeks before Election Day that promises considerable financial relief to thousands of commuters.
Under the plan, slated to take effect June 30, taxpayers would assume the burden of running and maintaining the Massachusetts Turnpike from Weston to Springfield, while some commuters would save as much as $5.40 per trip and about 200 toll collectors would be laid off.
The move was orchestrated by Governor Mitt Romney's administration. Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey , the Republican nominee for governor, took the lead yesterday in championing the plan while Romney played an uncharacteristic supporting role.
Healey's political opponents and some lawmakers decried the timing of the board's vote, saying it was designed to give Healey, who is trailing in the polls, a boost among a key bloc of voters.
Healey and Romney defended the measure as delivering a dose of fairness to long-suffering commuters in western suburbs, while pushing out overpaid and inefficient toll collectors. ``There is no rational argument for maintaining this wasteful system," said Healey.
Deval L. Patrick the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, said the proposal deserved ``serious consideration" but questioned its timing.
``We should also remember that we've heard hollow promises before from the Romney-Healey administration, and this might be another one for Massachusetts voters that happens to come less than three weeks before Election Day," he said in a statement.
Others said getting rid of the tolls would put more pressure on a statewide transportation system that is severely in debt and unable to fund much basic maintenance or expansion.
``At a time that the transportation system is desperate for more resources, this proposal would be a major step backward," said Michael J. Widmer , president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a budget watchdog group. ``You are sacrificing an important revenue stream."
Widmer is on a special state commission that is preparing a comprehensive evaluation of transportation finances -- and that by coincidence happened to be meeting at the same time as the Turnpike Authority board, one floor above in the State Transportation Building. That panel is considering proposals to reinstate tolls in Western Massachusetts, between the New York line and Springfield, which were eliminated in 1996, and to increase the gas tax. The commission is not expected to make recommendations until after the election.
The Turnpike Authority board said it plans to seek financial and legal advice before taking a final vote Nov. 15, but state officials said passage was all but certain.
Eliminating the tolls -- which does not require legislative approval -- 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 Turnpike Authority's 400 toll collectors.
On some late-night shifts at toll plazas in Western Massachusetts, it costs more to collect the tolls than the amount brought in, officials said.
The cost of running and maintaining the western portion of the turnpike -- all but 15 miles of the heavily traveled 138-mile highway -- would be assumed by the state Highway Department.
The proposal was recommended by Eric Kriss , Romney's former finance chief, whom the governor appointed to review Turnpike Authority finances after Romney took control of the agency from Matthew J. Amorello following the fatal ceiling collapse July 10 in the Interstate 90 connector tunnel.
``The cost of manual toll collection has grown unacceptably high," the report concluded, finding that wages and benefits made up 91 percent of the cost of collecting tolls. Kriss also wrote that eliminating tolls would reduce accidents and traffic at tollbooths while reducing global warming by curbing carbon dioxide emissions from idling cars.
The five-member Turnpike Authority board, dominated by Romney appointees, passed the proposal within hours of receiving the report, which Kriss said he had discussed in person with the governor Tuesday.
Kriss's 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. However, that change would require approval by the Legislature, and the authority's board did not discuss it yesterday. Kriss said the governor and Legislature elected next month should consider the proposal.
Drivers who pay the western tolls have long agitated for eliminating the fee. In 1952, when the authority was created, lawmakers promised to end the tolls once the original bonds for the turnpike were paid off. That happened in 1983, but the tolls continued, helping pay for salaries, maintenance, and operation of the turnpike.
One regular commuter was pleased with yesterday's announcement, which would mean savings of $2.70 one-way for a passenger vehicle traveling the 72 miles from Interstate 291 near Springfield to Route 128 near Weston.
``My initial reaction is, `Yippee!' " said Roger Reidy , 81, a structural engineer who took the turnpike from his Framingham home to his Boston office for decades and still drives often to the city. ``I always thought that when the Pike opened, that once the bonds had been paid off, there would be no tolls."
To end the western tolls and transfer that portion of the turnpike to MassHighway, the state will have to repay the authority's remaining $199 million debt on the highway. Under the Kriss plan, the authority would use $112 million in cash reserves and borrow $87 million against the service plazas it owns along the turnpike.
One lawmaker with oversight over transportation policy dismissed the move as political gamesmanship.
``I think it's a cheap political stunt. I think that it is something that will cost the taxpayers money," said Representative Joseph F. Wagner , a Chicopee Democrat and co chairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation. He said that without the western toll revenue, turnpike costs would siphon money from local road and bridge projects and possibly force local tax increases to make up the shortfall.
Independent gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos , who proposed abolishing the tolls three years ago when he was on the Turnpike Authority's board, also called the move a bald political ploy.
``Why didn't they do this back in 2003, when I proposed it?" he said. ``They've had intentional indifference about this until now."
During the 1996 US Senate race, then-Governor William F. Weld, a candidate, directed workers with jackhammers to rip down two toll booths in Newton about five weeks before Election Day.
Healey said the Romney administration learned of the Turnpike Authority's inefficiencies only this summer after taking control of it.
At a packed State House press conference a little more than an hour after the board's vote, Healey assumed center stage, with Romney and other officials arrayed behind her. ``The governor and I are here this afternoon to say we are giving our enthusiastic support," she said.
She cited the Turnpike Authority's financial situation, saying, ``if we take no action, that house of cards is set to fall in less than two years."
Though Romney has taken the lead role in virtually every transportation issue before the public in the last four years, his spokesman said Healey's elevated profile yesterday was warranted.
``She will be in office when the tolls come down," said Eric Fehrnstrom. ``It seemed appropriate to put her front and center." 