CLT
News Release
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
NO to S.1959 – More tolls on motorists
CLT communications director Chip Faulkner will testify this morning
before the Joint Committee on Transportation against
S.1959 – An Act establishing the Metropolitan Transportation
Network.
S.1959 proposes to vastly expand the "Metropolitan highway system," and
merge it with the Metropolitan waterways system and MBTA "assets" to
produce a new entity, the "Metropolitan transportation network."
It then proposes to establish "a comprehensive system of tolling" on and
within the Metropolitan highway system that will "take advantage of all
electronic tolling technology" and "implement dynamic or peak period
pricing."
In 2013 the Legislature increased the gas tax by three cents per
gallon. In 2016 that tax alone cost motorists $766 million.
Motorists also pay the 6.25% sales tax on the purchase of a motor
vehicle, an annual excise on ownership, perpetually increasing fees for
driver's licenses, vehicle registration, vehicle inspections, and tolls
already imposed, among other costs.
Citizens for Limited Taxation opposes any cost increases targeting
motorists that only fund an embarrassingly bloated transportation
system, the third most expensive in the nation.
As always in Massachusetts, the state does not have a revenue problem —
it has a spending problem. When it comes to transportation
infrastructure, Massachusetts has an astounding spending problem.
According to a comprehensive report issued last September by the
Reason Foundation ("22nd
Annual Highway Report"),
this state spends 320 percent more than the national average for
every mile of state road infrastructure built or maintained. That puts
this state at the 48th most expensive — spending more per
state-controlled mile than only Florida and New Jersey.
|
Capital and Bridges Disbursements per State-Controlled Mile |
|
Massachusetts |
$290,854 |
|
New Hampshire |
$79,385 |
|
National Average |
$84,494 |
|
Maintenance Disbursements per State-Controlled Mile |
|
Massachusetts |
$78,313 |
|
New Hampshire |
$19,906 |
|
National Average |
$25,996 |
|
Administrative Disbursements per State-Controlled Mile |
|
Massachusetts |
$74,924 |
|
New Hampshire |
$23,607 |
|
National Average |
$10,051 |
|
Total Disbursements (including bond principal and interest,
etc.) per State-Controlled Mile |
|
Massachusetts |
$675,939 |
|
New Hampshire |
$186,194 |
|
National Average |
$160,997 |
|
Source: Reason Foundation Policy Study No. 448, September
2016, "22nd Annual Highway Report — The Performance of State
Highway Systems"
http://reason.org/files/22nd_annual_highway_report.pdf |
Chip Ford, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation, notes:
“Massachusetts desperately needs to get its exorbitant cost of highway
construction and maintenance under control. Throwing more and more
taxpayer money at a failing and bloated transportation system is not a
solution – it’s only digging the hole deeper.”
# # #
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪ PO
Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665