CLT
UPDATE
Thursday, October 19, 2006
MTF's Widmer devasted by toll
abolition
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....
"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....
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.
The Boston Globe
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Pike board acts to end tolls west of Route 128
The report by Kriss estimates the move to eliminate the
western tolls and dismantle the Turnpike would cost mere millions up front and
save between $68 million and $105 million a year through 2011. Annual toll
revenue loss is estimated at $114 million.
But lawmakers and transportation watchdogs said the numbers are not being
considered in the context of the state’s crushing transportation debt and
maintenance problems. The Transportation Finance Commission, a group studying
long-term transportation needs, has been looking at re-instituting tolls that
were removed on the western Pike at exits 1 to 6 and has not viewed ending more
tolls as a viable option.
"This is a major step in the wrong direction," said Commissioner Michael Widmer
of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "It’s a transfer of these obligations
from tollpayers to taxpayers, and it aggravates an already serious problem the
state is having in maintaining its roads."
The Boston Herald
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Free pike ride pitched, but detours ahead
"I think anything that will help get rid of the tolls is
great for my district," said state Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, who had not yet
reviewed the toll plan yesterday afternoon. "But I think just to announce it
three weeks before an election when the lieutenant governor is trying to become
governor and she's behind in the polls ... it shows me how desperate they are."
...
Kriss' task force estimated removing all tolls except at the airport tunnels
would save the state and the Turnpike Authority $69 million in fiscal 2008 and
$105 million by fiscal 2011. Yet Kriss said the recommendation would shift
approximately $100 million in debt to the state a year.
Kriss last month caused a stir by announcing the Turnpike Authority is losing
money at an unsustainable rate, thanks in part to bad financial planning and
overpaid toll collectors.
A separate Transportation Finance Commission, meanwhile, has been weighing
whether the Turnpike Authority should keep tolls on the western part of the
Turnpike indefinitely and if Massachusetts should add tolls to more roads around
the state.
Commission member Michael Widmer, also the president of the
Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation, called removing Turnpike tolls "irresponsible."
"At a time when the state's transportation system is in dire need of new
revenues this would be a major step in the opposite direction," Widmer said.
The MetroWest Daily News
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Plan would nix Pike tolls west of Rte. 128
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority’s vote to end tolls west
of Route 128 promises long-awaited relief to tens of thousands of overburdened
Central Massachusetts and MetroWest commuters. The tolls, instituted in the
1950s to pay for construction of Interstate 90, were to have been eliminated
decades ago....
The turnpike never was intended to be an all-purpose cash cow and patronage job
bank for the state. The long-anticipated freeing of the pike in June can’t come
soon enough.
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Free at last?
End of Pike tolls west of Rt. 128 long overdue
Nobody likes paying tolls. But user fees, whether
tolls or the gasoline tax, have long been the preferred way to pay for
highway maintenance. A special commission is in the midst of reviewing
revenue and cost-saving alternatives. The Romney administration should
have waited for its report instead of unveiling this campaign-season
gimmick.
A Boston Globe editorial
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Tollbooth politics
The state Transportation Finance Commission, which drew
attention earlier this month over its discussion of raising the gas tax,
advanced proposals Wednesday to restructure the MBTA budget and trim employee
benefits at the agency while cutting down on collective bargaining there.
Downplaying its discussion of boosting the gas tax, which was quickly sucked up
into the jetstream of the gubernatorial campaign, the panel keyed on how to
impose harsher fiscal discipline on the eastern Massachusetts public
transportation system, currently both deep in debt and under pressure to
expand....
"Taking revenues off the table when a transportation system is in crisis - We
can afford no expansion in the Commonwealth under the present scenario for the
next 20 years," said Michael Widmer, president of the
Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation. He said, "This would basically be saying: The next
administration, ignore the crisis."
State House News Service
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Transportation panel shelves revenue specifics,
focuses on T budget
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
Wow, I've never seen a more desperate man than
Michael Widmer. Except for maybe Christy Mihos today, now arguing
against Gov. Romney doing what Christy's been advocating and Romney
promised he'd do if he ever had the authority, which he was just given.
Read any news report and the only sour grapes are
Christy -- and Michael Widmer, president of the so-called Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation. Both have had their legs cut out from
beneath them.
MTF's Widmer is apoplectic about yesterday's events.
First, his state Transportation Finance Commission didn't endorse his
9-cents-a-gallon gas tax increase at yesterday's meeting. Then the
Romney-Healey administration announced its plan to remove tolls on the
MassPike, which Widmer planned to boost. It must have been a bad
day for Michael and his MTF -- though a good one for taxpayers and
tollpayers.
Eric Kriss was appointed to head this other
commission by Gov. Romney when he took over the turnpike. CLT
members know Eric Kriss, whose panel is recommending the toll removal,
as Romney’s former Secretary of Administration and Finance. A CLT
ally on taxpayer issues, Kriss was the
featured speaker at the annual CLT brunch in 2004.
Remember this date. It ultimately defines the
so-called
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. Widmer's opposition may
finally be a stake through MTF's heart. It should be.
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Chip Ford |
The Boston Globe
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Pike board acts to end tolls west of Route 128
Healey takes the spotlight
By Raja Mishra and Mac Daniel, Globe Staff
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."
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The Boston Herald
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Free pike ride pitched, but detours ahead
By Casey Ross
MetroWest drivers may be rejoicing at the thought of a toll-free
Turnpike, but lawmakers are getting ready to put the brakes on the
Romney/Healey administration’s plan.
The move announced yesterday to end tolls west of Route 128 has come
under heavy fire from legislators and budget watchdogs, setting the
stage for an intense legal battle over whether the Pike board, dominated
by appointees of Gov. Mitt Romney, can make the change unilaterally.
"We’re going to take an independent look at whether or not this can
actually happen," said state Rep. Joe Wagner, co-chairman of the
Legislature’s Transportation Committee. "This will get a full public
airing. It’s clear from day one that it’s more about politics than
policy."
The toll change was approved unanimously by the Turnpike Authority board
yesterday, pending a review of legal and financial obligations. It is
the first step in a process that could lead to the dismantling of the
Turnpike Authority by the end of 2007 - a move that would create a
single transportation department controlled by the executive branch.
The toll vote means tollbooths west of Route 128 could be closed as soon
as June 30, 2007, if the administration’s position that the Turnpike
Authority can make the change without legislative approval holds.
The cost implications for commuters would be dramatic. People traveling
from Central and Western Massachusetts who now pay $5 to $9 for a
roundtrip to Boston would pay only $3. Turnpike officials said commuters
would have to pay at Weston and Allston/Brighton eastbound, and only at
Allston-Brighton heading west.
A report by Turnpike consultant Eric Kriss, Gov. Mitt Romney’s former
financial chief, recommended elimination of the western tolls be
followed by the removal of the Weston and Allston/Brighton tolls by the
end of 2007. That change, which does require action by the Legislature,
would mean commuters would have to pay tolls only at the Sumner and Ted
Williams tunnels. Tolls for the Tobin Bridge, controlled by Massport,
also would remain in place.
"The western drivers of Massachusetts have been ripped off," Romney said
yesterday, saying they unfairly pay tolls the rest of the state avoids.
"It just doesn’t make sense to keep that going in the future."
Romney, as he has for four years, portrayed the 123 miles of the
Turnpike as a patronage-laden fiefdom overburdened by more than $2
billion in debt and plagued by wasteful labor contracts. The report by
Kriss estimates the move to eliminate the western tolls and dismantle
the Turnpike would cost mere millions up front and save between $68
million and $105 million a year through 2011. Annual toll revenue loss
is estimated at $114 million.
But lawmakers and transportation watchdogs said the numbers are not
being considered in the context of the state’s crushing transportation
debt and maintenance problems. The Transportation Finance Commission, a
group studying long-term transportation needs, has been looking at
re-instituting tolls that were removed on the western Pike at exits 1 to
6 and has not viewed ending more tolls as a viable option.
"This is a major step in the wrong direction," said Commissioner Michael
Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "It’s a transfer of
these obligations from tollpayers to taxpayers, and it aggravates an
already serious problem the state is having in maintaining its roads."
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The MetroWest Daily News
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Plan would nix Pike tolls west of Rte. 128
By Emelie Rutherford
The Turnpike Authority board cast a preliminary vote in favor of
removing tolls west of Rte. 128 yesterday after a task force deemed toll
collection inefficient and said western commuters pay a disproportionate
amount in tolls.
Tolls would no longer be charged on the western part of the Turnpike --
including in Framingham and Natick and at the I-495 interchange --
starting on July 1, 2007, if the board casts a final vote to do so at
its next meeting on Nov. 15.
"I think it's a great first step toward restoring equity for people who
live west of the city," said Turnpike Authority board member Mary Z.
Connaughton, a Framingham accountant. "For far too long people who live
west of the city have experienced this undue burden," she said, noting
tolls initially were supposed to be removed in 1983.
"The western drivers of Massachusetts have been ripped off," outgoing
Gov. Mitt Romney said at a press conference.
Some Democrats questioned the timing of the toll-reducing vote so soon
before the Nov. 7 election by the board full of Romney appointees.
"I think anything that will help get rid of the tolls is great for my
district," said state Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, who had not yet
reviewed the toll plan yesterday afternoon. "But I think just to
announce it three weeks before an election when the lieutenant governor
is trying to become governor and she's behind in the polls...it shows me
how desperate they are."
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick said the toll-reducing
plan deserves consideration, but also questioned the timing.
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, the Republican nominee for governor, denied the
timing was politically motivated while standing next to Romney at a
press conference. The board's vote came after a task force led by former
state Secretary of Administration and Finance Eric Kriss yesterday
recommended the Turnpike Authority take down all tollbooths, except for
those at airport tunnels, by the end of 2007.
The task force was charged with reviewing the books of the Turnpike
Authority after state officials gained control of much of the
quasi-public authority's operations in August following the fatal Big
Dig ceiling collapse.
Removing tolls east of Rte. 128, though, would need to be approved by
the Legislature and next governor.
Kriss said the task force found toll collection is inefficient. For
every toll dollar manually collected, 29.3 cents is lost on collection
costs, he said.
"You pay a $3 toll. A dollar of it is what it costs to collect the toll,
and that means only $2 goes to fix the road, so it's incredibly
inefficient," Kriss said.
Eliminating tolls also would reduce accidents around tollbooths, lower
pollution and help the economy by lowering labor hours lost by people
sitting in tollbooth traffic, he said.
Removing tolls west of Rte. 128 would mean the loss of 200 toll
collectors, Romney said.
To end tolls on the western Turnpike, $199 million in debt tied to that
part of the tollroad would have to be paid. The task force recommended
taking most of that money -- $112 million -- from existing reserve
accounts and garnering the rest by reworking the finances of lease
agreements for the service plazas on the roadway.
"There's no particular reason for the people of MetroWest and western
Massachusetts to keep having to pay tolls," Romney said. "Their portion
of the Pike ... can be paid off based upon the resources already
collected."
Kriss' task force estimated removing all tolls except at the airport
tunnels would save the state and the Turnpike Authority $69 million in
fiscal 2008 and $105 million by fiscal 2011. Yet Kriss said the
recommendation would shift approximately $100 million in debt to the
state a year.
Kriss last month caused a stir by announcing the Turnpike Authority is
losing money at an unsustainable rate, thanks in part to bad financial
planning and overpaid toll collectors.
A separate Transportation Finance Commission, meanwhile, has been
weighing whether the Turnpike Authority should keep tolls on the western
part of the Turnpike indefinitely and if Massachusetts should add tolls
to more roads around the state.
Commission member Michael Widmer, also the president of the
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, called removing Turnpike tolls
"irresponsible."
"At a time when the state's transportation system is in dire need of new
revenues this would be a major step in the opposite direction," Widmer
said.
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The Telegram & Gazette
Thursday, October 19, 2006
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Free at last?
End of Pike tolls west of Rt. 128 long overdue
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority’s vote to end tolls west of Route
128 promises long-awaited relief to tens of thousands of overburdened
Central Massachusetts and MetroWest commuters. The tolls, instituted in
the 1950s to pay for construction of Interstate 90, were to have been
eliminated decades ago.
The change was among recommendations by former state finance secretary
Eric A. Kriss, who was brought in by Gov. Mitt Romney to review the
authority’s finances in the wake of the fatal ceiling collapse in the
I-90 connector tunnel in July.
To be sure, it’s not a done deal yet. But at yesterday’s meeting, the
recently reconstituted authority board voted in principle to eliminate
all tolls on the Pike west of Route 128 in June. (Tolls for passenger
cars were eliminated in 1996 at the six western exits, from the New York
border to I-291 near Springfield.)
The study showed that the loss of revenue from ending the tolls would be
offset in two ways: Some 200 toll-taker jobs would become redundant, and
administration and maintenance responsibilities for that portion of the
138-mile toll road would be shifted to the state Highway Department.
The analysis by Mr. Kriss revealed what many observers — us included —
have suspected for a long time: that revenue from tolls went largely to
pay the generous wages, benefits, workers’ compensation payments and
other extraordinary costs associated with toll-collecting.
The authority will consider ending tolls on the pike "extension" within
Route 128 separately. That is logical, since it is within the
Metropolitan Highway System created by the Legislature in 1997.
The authority vote is significant because the Kriss study coincides with
that of a special state commission studying funding needs. Reportedly,
that panel is considering the possibility of, incredibly, reinstating
the tolls on the western end of the turnpike.
The turnpike never was intended to be an all-purpose cash cow and
patronage job bank for the state. The long-anticipated freeing of the
pike in June can’t come soon enough.
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The Boston Globe
Thursday, October 19, 2006
A Boston Globe editorial
Tollbooth politics
Questions about whether Governor Romney would interject himself into the
gubernatorial campaign have just been answered. He got involved
yesterday, via his appointees on the board of the Massachusetts Turnpike
Authority who voted to end all Pike tolls west of Route 128 effective
June 30 -- but put off the final decision until Nov. 15, a week after
the election.
Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, the Republican candidate for governor,
appeared with Romney yesterday to endorse the rollback, but she'll have
much explaining to do during the rest of the campaign about how her
administration would make up the lost toll revenues.
The turnpike board was acting on a report by Eric Kriss, a former Romney
fiscal adviser, who recommended that all tolls be lifted, except on the
harbor tunnels. Ending tolls on the turnpike in Newton and Boston would,
however, require legislative approval. These funds are essential to pay
off the debt incurred to build the depressed Central Artery.
Kriss argues that the cost associated with employing toll-takers
consumes 29.3 percent of the tolls they collect; therefore the whole
system is flawed and should be eliminated. But even by his reckoning,
that leaves 70.7 percent of the toll revenues for maintenance and
payment of turnpike debt. Perhaps the toll-takers are overcompensated,
but eliminating them with the tolls would shift responsibility for the
turnpike onto the overburdened Highway Department.
"Capital investment of $80-$100 million annually is needed to maintain
the existing MTA [turnpike] infrastructures," Kriss acknowledges in the
report. It is irresponsible to propose cutting off one revenue stream
without proposing another that would allow the Highway Department to
keep the turnpike and the other state highways and bridges in good
repair.
"The western drivers of Massachusetts have been ripped off," Romney said
at the press conference. Motorists west of Route 128 have legitimate
reason to wonder whether their highways are being under maintained
because of the overruns on the Central Artery. But the artery project
was essential to relieve a transportation logjam in the heart of the
largest city in New England. Massachusetts has the resources to
adequately maintain its transportation systems if political leaders
summon the will to deploy them properly.
Nobody likes paying tolls. But user fees, whether tolls or the gasoline
tax, have long been the preferred way to pay for highway maintenance. A
special commission is in the midst of reviewing revenue and cost-saving
alternatives. The Romney administration should have waited for its
report instead of unveiling this campaign-season gimmick.
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State House News Service
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Transportation panel shelves revenue specifics,
focuses on T budget
By Jim O'Sullivan
The state Transportation Finance Commission, which drew attention
earlier this month over its discussion of raising the gas tax, advanced
proposals Wednesday to restructure the MBTA budget and trim employee
benefits at the agency while cutting down on collective bargaining
there.
Downplaying its discussion of boosting the gas tax, which was quickly
sucked up into the jetstream of the gubernatorial campaign, the panel
keyed on how to impose harsher fiscal discipline on the eastern
Massachusetts public transportation system, currently both deep in debt
and under pressure to expand.
The commission, nearly two years tardy in reporting to the Legislature
on how to pay for maintaining and building out the state's
transportation infrastructure, rejected tying specifics to chairman
Stephen Silveira's proposal to shelve revenue enhancements until
cost-cutting measures are enacted.
Silveira, a lobbyist at the Boston-based ML Strategies firm, hoped to
counter the perception that the panel is focused on tax hikes. At their
morning meeting in the state Transportation Building, members complained
the gas tax had been over-publicized as part of a broader strategy, but
said Silveira's suggestion would prevent the panel from dwelling on all
facets of the solution.
"Taking revenues off the table when a transportation system is in crisis
- We can afford no expansion in the Commonwealth under the present
scenario for the next 20 years," said Michael Widmer, president of the
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. He said, "This would basically be
saying: The next administration, ignore the crisis."
The commission plans to release its recommendations later this year.
Several members decried what they called a wide perception that the
panel had come to be known as, commissioner James Aloisi, an attorney at
Goulston Storrs, put it as "the gas tax advocacy group." Former
Transportation Secretary Kevin Sullivan said, "We do not want to be
construed as the Department of Revenue here."
The commission also advanced, in preliminary form, a recommendation that
the state assume responsibility for Silver Line Phase III. That builds
on the current plan for the state to take over all projects after that
one, which would link the first two phases through an underground
tunnel.
The panel handily rejected a plan to index MBTA fare increases to
inflation. The commission's revenue recovery ratio plan would mandate
that the T take in a certain percentage of its budget in direct
non-sales tax revenue. While the discussion ranged between 40 and 50
percent, and did not specify in its discussion of direct revenue between
fare revenue and non-fare revenue, the commission didn't specify whether
the ratio should apply to the T's operation or overall spending plan.
Members also signaled willingness to forgive a portion of what they
called the crushing "legacy debt" the T inherited when the Legislature
changed its funding mechanism in 1999. The panel was united in
suggesting that the T pare back employee benefits, which members called
unaffordable.
Restoring "management rights," roundly hailed as a way to help the T
function more flexibly, also received preliminary approval.
"What it allows the T is to most efficiently utilize their workforce,"
Silveira said in a telephone interview.
The president of the Boston Carmen's Union was unavailable for comment.
Members disagreed over how to handle the "Pacheco statute," state law
regulating government privatization efforts, eventually settling, with
some disagreement, on a plan to amend rather than repeal.
"We're an independent commission, and if we don't put this forward in a
straightforward, compelling fashion, nobody will," Widmer said. He
defended the gas tax proposal, saying the state hasn't adjusted its rate
since 1990.
At the same time that the commission was meeting to discuss how to
finance expansion, a separate board, with policymaking powers, was
voting to strip the turnpike of tolls in western Massachusetts, a
parallel that Aloisi later called "the gorilla in the room."
In a telephone interview, he said, "No one really addressed it, but I
think people were a little on edge because of it."
The commission's next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 2.
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