Tollpayers seem resigned to hike, pols still fighting

By Lindsey Parietti/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Tue Oct 23, 2007, 12:33 AM EDT
FRAMINGHAM -
Several dozen MetroWest commuters, who were more defeated than angry, wrapped up the last of five hearings on proposed Turnpike toll increases yesterday at Nevins Hall.

Most acknowledged that toll increases, 25 cents at the Rte. 128-Weston barrier and the Allston tolls and 50 cents at the Boston tunnels, are inevitable and public comment would do little to change the Turnpike Authority Board's final vote yesterday morning.

"We're talking to you like you're going to do something. We all know you're not going to do anything," Gerald Bloomfield told authority staff and board member Mary Connaughton, who listened silently from behind a folding table.

"People are just fed up. They don't want to come out and talk anymore," he said.

Connaughton, a Framingham resident and one of two appointees on the five-member board by former Gov. Mitt Romney, was the lone board member present.

Aside from Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen, chairman of the Turnpike Authority Board, Connaughton was the only member to attend any of the five hearings. She attended three.

State Rep. David Linsky, D-Natick, said, "The board members may not be legally required to appear at the hearings, but in my view, as one public officer to another, I consider it their responsibility to hear from members of the public who would actually have to pay the tolls they are charging."

Linsky has worked with MetroWest lawmakers to oppose the increases.

Authority board members will receive a transcript of hearing testimony.

Linsky and state Rep. Stephen LeDuc, D-Marlborough, advocated applying for the federal waiver needed to raise tolls on federal roads including Interstate 93.

"The authority no longer has the excuse it had back in the '90s when it was the policy of the federal government (not to have tolls on interstate roads)," said Linsky, who, along with LeDuc, believes the federal government has begun to yield to states that are struggling to meet infrastructure needs.

Some residents support Gov. Deval Patrick's plan to merge state transportation agencies as an alternative to toll hikes, but both Linsky and LeDuc said it could be a while before the state sees the anticipated cost savings.

"It's worth the fight and it's worth the wait if the end result is relief for MetroWest tollpayers," LeDuc said.

State Rep. Tom Sannicandro, D-Ashland, also testified against the tolls, which will pay for scheduled increases in Big Dig debt and cost the daily Framingham commuter an additional $200 annually to get to Boston.

"Even understanding the issue with the finances ... it's still an issue we really can't live with," he said. "For us, it's so clear."

According to Linsky, chairman of the MetroWest delegation, state Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, and state Reps. Alice Peisch, D-Wellesley, Pam Richardson, D-Framingham, and Kevin Honan, D-Brighton, also testified at the first Framingham hearing earlier this month.

The legally required round of public hearings drew less than 20 people in East Boston and Newton. Only one person testified at a Worcester hearing.

MetroWest residents reiterated the objections that Connaughton and lawmakers have raised on Beacon Hill: inequity, financial hardship, declining maintenance and increasing congestion.

"I hope you will listen to your mathematician on the board who told you to concentrate on the tunnels," said Ginger Esty, praising former accountant Connaughton's plan to get the necessary revenue exclusively from tunnel users and commercial vehicles.

MetroWest residents may be onboard with Connaughton's plans, but lawmakers have yet to back her list of alternative toll hikes, and Cohen has expressed reservations about overtaxing commercial interests.

Earlier this month, Connaughton's number crunching forced the authority to admit the proposed hikes would raise approximately $6 million more than originally anticipated.

"I think it's telling of how the Turnpike is operated,' LeDuc said of the miscalculation. 'I think the administration is still feeling their way around ... it's a new landscape and they're going through their growing pains."