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.

Tisei calls for LeBovidge’s resignation

Senate Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei is calling on Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA) Executive Director Alan LeBovidge to resign, following last weekend’s massive traffic gridlock at the Turnpike’s tolls.

Despite LeBovidge’s initial attempts to blame the holiday weekend traffic back-up on toll-takers who had called in sick, it has now come to light that MTA management knowingly reduced employee staffing levels prior to this peak travel period. Tisei believes this was intentionally done to impact motorists and to bolster the Patrick Administration’s argument for passing a 19-cents-a-gallon increase in the gas tax.

“Call me cynical, but I can’t help but think this debacle was all part of a poorly-orchestrated ploy to drum up support for an increase in the gas tax,” said Tisei. “Prior to this, the Administration had purposely leaked news of drastic MBTA service cuts that could not possibly be implemented without undermining the MBTA’s core mission just to scare people, and even went so far as to turn off the lights on the Zakim Bridge. In the end, I think this is all going to backfire because the public is fed up with the incompetence displayed by this Administration.

“Commuters are tired of being used as pawns while reforms are ongoing in the state’s transportation system,” Tisei added. “Once again, the Governor is unwilling to embrace real reform because he’s too busy trying to find new revenue sources.”

In an interview with WBZ-TV Channel 4 that aired last night, LeBovidge took full responsibility for the traffic tie-ups, saying he did not want to pay workers overtime rates to cover the missed shifts. What he did not say was that he was the one who caused this whole crisis by making the decision to reduce staffing last Friday. Previously, LeBovidge tried to deflect criticism by blaming much of the problem on those drivers who have not purchased a Fast Lane transponder.

“To attempt to blame commuters for this fiasco shows me that Mr. LeBovidge just doesn’t get it,” said Tisei. “The arrogance he has displayed in dealing with this situation is unacceptable. Clearly, it is time for him to go.”
For more on this story, check out the coverage from the Boston Globe, Boston Herald and NECN.

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.