Now Where’s The Rest Of It?

It’s great to see the Pike returning the thousands of dollars overcharged to Fast Lane users.

Tens of thousands of Turnpike motorists have been socked with falsely inflated Fast Lane bills because the company that provided their transponders violated its multimillion-dollar contract by failing to inspect the system, a state audit has found.

State Auditor Joseph DeNucci -who investigated the overcharges after a front-page Herald expose in February – found that Fast Lane provider TransCore failed to inspect transponder equipment over the past two years as mandated in its $11 million-a-year contract.

“The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority neither requested nor had TransCore completed Annual Certification Tests mandated by state contract for 2007 or 2008. We feel that the performance of these might have alerted personnel that (equipment), such as sensors, were failing to perform to specifications,” DeNucci wrote.

His office found that defective equipment caused some 113,940 Fast Lane overcharges last year, for a total of $190,441.

Now, where’s the rest of it? Motorists have been forced to pay tolls that we should have stopped having to pay for a long, long time. Where’s the rest of our money?

The Common Wealth of Taxachusetts

And off we go down the path of tax hikes and toll hikes and falling short of making the necessary reforms to keep those hikes from happening.

Bay State consumers, already hard-pressed by a slumping economy, will be slapped with a 25 percent sales tax hike and nearly $1 billion in total tax increases Aug. 1, Gov. Deval Patrick said yesterday after signing a massive transportation reform bill.

Patrick had vowed to veto the sales tax boost if lawmakers didn’t enact transportation, pension and ethics reforms – but all three measures passed.

“I could not support a sales tax increase and ask people to pay for the status quo,” Patrick said in a statement. “Because of (the reforms), I will approve the new revenues we need to bring our budget into balance, offset the need for even more difficult cuts and expand opportunity throughout the commonwealth.”

The transportation measure also means an unpopular toll hike – scheduled take effect July 1 – will likely be averted. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board is meeting Monday.

I am not convinced, not in the slightest, that all possible options were considered to avoid increasing taxes. When times are tight for the rest of us, we have to cut our spending. Why can’t the state? I know too many people that have to endure pay cuts in addition to their own spending cuts and times are still rough. I know too many people that have become unemployed in the last year who will also bear the brunt of tax increases at the worst possible time. If they think the state has it rough, as around, they don’t have it so bad.

If someone can explain to me why perfectly good roads are getting repaved and perfectly good highway signs are getting replaced while taxes are being raised, then perhaps you have a shot of convincing me that the hikes are necessary. But I doubt it.

We’re all tired of the incessant rain that has been falling on the Commonwealth for weeks–but there is always hope in knowing that there is sunshine in our future…at least with regards to the weather forecast. As far as the forecast for the economy of the Commonwealth–I see that dreary days well into our future.

Remind me again, why do I bother to stay in Massachusetts?

Mass (Pike) Refund

A newly filed class action lawsuit is taking on the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, suggesting the Mass Pike tolls are an “illegal tax.”

A trial lawyer made famous by Hollywood is looking to win some change for Bay State toll-payers in a newly filed class-action suit that takes on the embattled Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

Jan R. Schlichtmann – whose local battle against a chemical company was the basis of the book and film “A Civil Action” – is looking for Pike drivers to join his legal quest for a massive refund.

Schlictmann filed a complaint in Middlesex Superior Court Friday in the name of three Pike-weary drivers who maintain the tolls are an “illegal tax.” because the proceeds from th roadway’s tolls are diverted to other projects. The lawsuit contends 58 percent of Pike tolls are used to finance Big Dig roads.

“It is a Big Dig tax,” Schlichtmann said. “This amounts to an unconstitutional expropriation of money. The argument isn’t that it’s not being used for a good purpose. It’s that you can’t lawfully do that.”

Turnpike spokesman Colin Durrant refused to comment on pending litigation.

Schlichtmann contends tolls are fees that should only benefit the roads they provide access to.

“There have been several cases in which this principle has been affirmed, but nothing on this scale,” he said.

If the lawsuit were to prevail, the Pike’s estimated liability is at least $300 million, Schlichtmann said. But more than a cash-grab, he said, the suit seeks to “get the toll-payer a seat at the table.”

Anyone interested in becoming a part of the class action lawsuit may find more information here.

Transportation Reform Passes The Senate

It’s nice to see progress in one of the governor’s ideas to save the Commonwealth some money–even though it’s not Governor Patrick’s idea, it was Mitt Romney’s–but still, progress.

A comprehensive transportation reform bill that would ax the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and that proponents say could save up to $7 billion over the next two decades passed the state Senate yesterday and is on its way to the House.

The bill’s sponsors say it will save taxpayer cash by consolidating all other transportation agencies under one super-department called the Massachusetts Surface Transportation Agency over a three-year period.

“What we have is the most comprehensive bill in transportation that this body has seen in generations,” said Sen. Steve Baddour (D-Methuen), co-chairman of the legislative transportation committee. “I strongly believe that working with the House and administration we will once and for all reform our system and gain credibility with the taxpayers and the toll payers.”

The bill, which passed by a 39-to-1 vote, was touted in the Senate as delivering reform before asking drivers for more money. It could save more than $100 million in the first two years of implementation, according to proponents.

Pike Tells 20 To Take a Hike

The first of a series of layoffs at the Mass Turnpike were doled out today.

Pike officials sent out pink slips to 20 toll takers today in the first batch of a 100-person purge, Pike Executive Director Alan LeBovidge announced.

The cuts, first reported in the Herald in September, are part of Gov. Deval Patrick’s plan to save $10 million at the debt-plagued Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

The first round of cuts were on a voluntary basis, and the 20 layoffs will save the Pike between $65,000 to $70,000 for a total of $1.4 million. The layoffs come as the Pike board members gave preliminary support to a toll hike and face elimination as the agency struggles with a $100 million budget deficit this fiscal year.

Toll takers were earning $65,000 to $70,000 a year? I knew this already, but damn, are they serious? The job takes one tenth the talent and brain capacity as most minimum wage jobs, and they are earning $70,000 a year? Must be nice to be the step cousin of a state senator.

Officials aim to slash the number of toll takers from 440 to 150, but in the short term the 20 layoffs will save $1.4 million, Pike spokesman Mac Daniel said.

LeBovidge is still eying electronic toll to cut down on manned tollbooths. The system allows motorists with electronic transponders to breeze through the gates and pay their tab monthly via credit card. Those without the devices have a picture of their license plate snapped and receive a bill in the mail.

It’s a step in the right direction, but a baby step if that. Speed it up a little, will you?