Legislators, Advocates Eye Toll Funds
Every day, hundreds of thousands of dollars are collected along the seven Massachusetts Turnpike tolls in Central Massachusetts.
And today, some five weeks after the creation of the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which absorbed the often criticized Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, area state legislators say that they are watching the new agency to make sure the region gets its fair share of the millions collected every year.
“We’re watching it like a hawk,” said State Rep. David Linsky, a Natick democrat.
When the new MassDOT was formed on Nov. 1, with it came a new mandate, sponsored by State Rep. Alice Peisch, who represents Weston, requiring that money collected on MassPike tolls to be used solely for operating and maintenance expenses on the MassPike.
Peisch said the new regulation corrects years of inequities when Central Massachusetts and MetroWest toll money was used to pay off the estimated $15 billion Bid Dig project.
Big Money
Central and Western Massachusetts tolls have already collected about $112 million in revenue through October this year, even with revenues at toll plazas down 4 percent across the state.
Central Massachusetts has some of the highest revenue generating tolls in the state. According to MassDOT, Allston tolls are the highest grossing, collecting $3.3 million in October. The airport tunnels collect about $1.5 million a month in revenue. (Click here to see a map of the Central Massachusetts toll booth locations.)
But the Sturbridge toll, which connects Interstate 84 from Connecticut, collected $1.4 million in revenue in October. In Westborough, the toll where Interstate 495 crosses the Pike brought in $1.3 million in revenue in October.
State Sen. Michael Moore, D-Millbury, said toll equity is about ensuring that all toll payers outside of Boston are not paying for transportation projects around the state.
“Toll equity is an issue for everyone along the Pike,” said Moore, who has three tolls in his district, including in Auburn, Millbury and Worcester. “We want to make sure the money we’re putting into the tolls is going to those toll roads.”
Moore said having a MassPike connection in town is an economic development magnet.
He credits the Pike with helping to support local development, such as the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley mall which opened in 2004 in Millbury.
Local Impact
Whether the Pike is a blessing or a curse, the new language in the MassDOT bylaws mandates that the money collected through tolls west of Route 128 will stay in the region, according to Jeffrey Mullan, the new secretary of transportation.
Mullan said the new toll equity provisions are “fair” and said the state agency is working within those guidelines.
After about a month on the job, Mullan said progress is slow but steady on integrating and consolidating the former transportation departments. He describes his job as to not only save money through efficiencies, but to improve transportation services.
“For many years transportation didn’t suffer from a lack of progress, it suffered from a one step forward, two step back formula in many cases,” Mullan said.
The new DOT merges five former offices into one, including the Executive Office of Transportation, the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission, MassHighway, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
The new streamlined organization will allow sharing of staff, which Mullan said could reduce public transportation management personnel by about 300.
John Fernandes, a Milford democrat, sits on the Joint Committee on Transportation, which helped create MassDOT.
“It’s premature to say how it’s going,” Fernandes said. “What we can say is that Secretary Mullan has hit the ground running. Our transportation system had become disjointed. Now we’ve put the tools in place to fix that.”
Some legislators are still concerned about the transportation overhaul, however.
State Sen. Karen Spilka of Framingham voted against the transportation package because she felt the reforms did not provide enough equity for her MetroWest constituents.
She had an amendment in the Senate version of the bill that would have given communities with a higher-than-average portion of toll transactions in MassPike tolls increased federal highway money allocations.
“I didn’t feel like we went far enough to truly protect, at least my constituents,” Spilka said. “I felt like we should be doing more."
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