What A Great Day for Toll Equity
The last 24 hours have brought a sea-change in our efforts as state Treasurer Tim Cahill authored a strongly-worded letter to Governor Deval Patrick and Attorney General Martha Coakley urging them to take the toll equity suit seriously and sit down with us to settle.
Two of the leaders of our effort, famed plaintiffs’ attorney Jan Schlichtmann and former Romney administration chief legal counsel Daniel Winslow appeared at a State House news conference with two tollpayers – Bob Ackley of Southborough and Joel Feingold of Framingham. On the sweltering pavement in the shadow of the Golden Dome, Jan, Dan, Bob and Joel thanked the Treasurer for his stand and legislators and the Governor for standing with us to ensure that toll equity is the law of the land going forward.
Schlictmann asked again that Governor Patrick and the Turnpike begin to take our claims seriously, to respect the more than 2,000 tollpayers who have signed on to our suit and sit down with us to settle this case for the good of everyone in the Commonwealth.
“Nobody wins if we fight over this,” Schlichtmann said. “Everybody wins if we sit down and try to solve it, so we’re hopeful that there are a lot of folks around the Turnpike Authority who will encourage them to do the courageous and the right thing, which is to sit down with everybody.”
Naturally, the Big Dig minders reacted as they always have – by sticking their heads in the sand and blaming the Treasurer for hurting their defense. But, as the lawyers noted, there is no weakness is sitting down to talk.
“The facts of this case aren’t in dispute,” Winslow said. “There’s nothing the treasurer could or did say that could harm the state’s case.”
Check out the great coverage we received just in the last 24 hours – including a live interview with Jan and Bob on Broadside with Chet Curtis on NECN, two days of coverage in The Boston Herald and The Boston Globe a profile of Waltham residents joining via The News Tribune and more.
Remember to stay tuned to this blog, our website and follow us on Twitter. This is a fast-moving story and we need you engaged. If you’d like to contribute to the blog, write letters to the editor or to elected officials or help in attracting friends to our effort, make sure to contact us.