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Turnpike Board Hikes Toll at Big Dig TunnelsBy Kyle Cheney - October 30, 2007
State House News Service
BOSTON - Minutes after verbally agreeing to postpone action, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board reversed course Monday and approved toll increases, stunning Metrowest lawmakers and sparking furious rebukes from two board members.
The board authorized a 25-cent toll hike to $1.25 at the Metrowest Turnpike extension and a 50-cent hike to $3.50 at the Big Dig tunnels. Board members cautioned that additional toll hikes will occur if state officials can't agree on transportation financing reforms that are likely to prove controversial.
Board Chairman Bernard Cohen, the state's transportation secretary, initially recommended that the board put off its vote while it considered board member Mary Connaughton's plan to maintain current toll rates for Metrowest drivers, create incentives for drivers to switch from cash to automated payment systems, and hike commercial vehicle tolls 75 percent. Cohen said he was concerned about the economic impact of increasing commercial tolls.
"We have a scenario that has some promise and some problems," he said of Connaughton's plan. "I'm willing to give us a month to test this scenario against the [scheduled hike]."
But after a 30-minute break during which he met with board members individually and privately, Cohen reversed course. After the break, Cohen said any changes to the scheduled toll increase would require additional public hearings and would put the authority behind its Jan. 1, 2008, deadline to increase tolls.
That deadline was put in place in 1999, when the authority mapped out a schedule to repay Big Dig (also known as the Central Artery Project) debt to bondholders. Two board members, Michael Angelini and Thomas Stephen, both appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick, supported Cohen's reversal. They told meeting attendees that the solution was only a short-term fix while the Patrick administration devises a comprehensive transportation finance overhaul.
In a phone interview, Cohen said he was "actively engaged in discussion with legislative leaders," including the House speaker, the Senate president and the chairmen of the Joint Transportation Committee, about the progress of a proposed overhaul.
"We have retained the services of a financial consulting firm and an organizational consulting firm to help us think through some of the issues associated with the restructuring," he said. "Part of the plan involves consolidating a number of administrative functions."
Cohen said he changed his tune on postponing a toll vote upon "the realization that we couldn't make the January toll increase timeline if we went out for additional public hearings."
"My credibility and our credibility was on the line because at the same time that we're asking the rating agencies to bear with us ... to see if we can put in place reforms that will provide sustainable funds for the authority, I was making a promise that we would at least take the first step in January," he said.
Patrick told the News Service on Monday that he supported the toll increase approved by the board, calling it "what we anticipated."
"There are certain obligations that are set out in the bonds," he said, adding that he is "sensitive" to the issue of inequity for Metrowest tollpayers.
On the proposal to overhaul the state's transportation agencies, Patrick did not offer a timetable but said, "There's a whole lot more work that has to be done." He added, "Our long-term focus has got to be in capturing efficiencies first."
Connaughton, with the support of board member Judy Pagliuca, opposed the toll hike, arguing that it exacerbates an existing inequity for Metrowest drivers who disproportionately finance Big Dig debt. When the board voted 3-2 to approve the hike, she erupted.
"It's a sad, sad day," she said. "If this is the direction the turnpike authority is going then it's sad."
Later, she told the News Service, "The tollpayers just got raked over the coals."
Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, on hand for the toll vote, called the board meeting "a comedy of errors" and said she had "zero faith" that the board would ever seriously address inequity for Metrowest commuters.
"I'm almost at a loss for words," she said. "The first hour and a half of the meeting, there was no purpose for it. I'm astounded. There are viable options within their control and their power to not increase the burden on the Metrowest taxpayers, and that's what they seemingly were planning on doing for the first two hours of this meeting and then they switched gears."
Connaughton proposed her alternative plan at an Oct. 3 board meeting and asked the turnpike staff to crunch the numbers to assure its viability. Back then, the board voted unanimously to evaluate an earlier version of her plan and discuss it at Monday's meeting.
The board also agreed to establish an independent working group to examine toll inequity, although some board members wondered aloud whether that was the job of the existing turnpike staff or whether a 2003 legislative report on the same subject was sufficient.
Turnpike Authority Executive Director Mary Jane O'Meara said the group would be unable to report comprehensive findings until April. |
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