Toll Equity Trust Blog

Dear Toll Payer,

We need your immediate help to ensure the new Toll Equity law is enforced.  Please see today’s MetroWest Daily news:

Victory For Toll Payers by Rick Holmes

As the Column by Rick Holmes makes clear, we achieved an outstanding victory when the Governor signed the Toll Equity provision of the new Transportation Reform Bill into law last week.  But as the article also makes clear, we must now fight just as hard to make sure our leaders follow the law we worked so hard to pass.

We need you to call your state representative and state senator first thing Monday morning and request that they ask transportation secretary Aloisi:

• Will the Turnpike Authority and the Transportation Secretary honor and enforce the Toll Equity provision of the transportation bill that is now the law of the land?
• Will the Turnpike Authority stop using turnpike toll dollars to pay the multi-billion dollar “Big Dig” debt that was used to build the non-tolled Central Artery that millions use free of charge?

We need to get a response in writing from your representatives so that we can document the intentions of the Transportation Secretary and the Turnpike Authority.  If we can’t get assurances that the Turnpike Authority and the Secretary intend to stop the unconstitutional diversion of our toll dollars to pay the “Big Dig” debt then we will immediately go into Court for an order enforcing the Toll Equity law.

Please call and email your representatives Monday morning and return your responses to us as soon as possible.

Because Toll Payers took action—Toll Equity is the law.  Now we must act again.  Together we can ensure Toll Equity is the law our leaders obey!

Warmest Regards,

Sandy, Doug, Bob & Joel

Dear Governor Patrick, Senate President Murray, and Speaker DeLeo:

For 11 years, the toll payers of Massachusetts, particularly those west of and along the shore north of Boston, have been victims of a scheme which diverted their toll dollars from the roads they drive to carry an unfair burden—The Big Dig. While it is clearly not within your power to change decisions by past Legislatures and Governors, it is wholly within your power, and appropriate to your mandate as the leaders of the Executive and Legislative bodies of Massachusetts, to ensure this obvious and debilitating inequity is fixed on your watch.

A bill is right now nearing completion in the Legislature which seeks to make radical reforms to our transportation infrastructure. While there are many great and varied reforms in this bill, it is our belief as members of the Massachusetts Turnpike Toll Equity Trust that reform without equity is reform in name only.

A provision approved overwhelmingly by the House of Representatives would mandate toll equity in the future, directing that tolls paid on Massachusetts roadways be devoted solely to the maintenance, operation and capital needs of that roadway.

We implore you to insist that this provision be included in the bill reported out of conference committee and that you not accept any reform bill which fails to fix the gross inequity of the current tolling system.

Each of us came to the toll equity trust in our own way but we are united with more than 2,000 beneficiaries who have signed up at our website, www.tollequity.com. The purpose of our class action lawsuit is very simply to make up for the inequities of the 1997 decision to fund The Big Dig through a diversion of tolls paid by only a fraction of the people who use it.

Internal documents reviewed already in this case show that Massachusetts Turnpike Authority officials were well aware of the inequities in this tolling system, calculated its cost at 58 cents diverted to The Big Dig of every dollar collected and knew that it would, as it is, bankrupt the system.

While the lawsuit is proceeding apace in the court system, each of you and the rest of the Legislature can fix the inequity going forward. That means passing and signing legislation which mandates that tolls not be diverted or that burdens like The Big Dig be shared by all drivers in the Commonwealth, not just some.

There are many solutions to this funding inequity—a gas tax, using a portion of the sales tax increase, new tolls which pay for the costly, difficult to maintain toll-free roads like I-93 north and south, and more. We do not propose any one solution and readily acknowledge that no decision in this case is an easy. But you all know well that you were not elected to make the easy decisions. It is your responsibility to make the tough calls. In this case, the precise solution might be difficult but the cause is easy—toll equity, now.

We will call your offices later today to follow up with you and to request a meeting to brief you on our efforts to date and to work with you on the path to equity ahead. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call any of us.

Sincerely,

Scott Harshbarger
Co-Trustee

Jack Altshuler
Trustee

Sandra Murphy
Beneficiary Steering Committee, Chairperson

Bob Ackley
Beneficiary Steering Committee

Doug Barth
Beneficiary Steering Committee

Joel Feingold
Beneficiary Steering Committee

Former MA Attorney Gen. Scott Harshbarger

Fellow Toll Payers:

GREAT NEWS!

Former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger has joined our cause as Co-Trustee of the Trust and Dan Winslow, former counsel to Governor Romney, and Don Griswold from the international law firm of Reed Smith have joined our legal team!

Read the complete Toll Equity Trust Press Release here.

See the Metro Front Page story in the Boston Globe:

“This is a simple case of fairness and equity,” Harshbarger said yesterday. “It’s time for the courts, the Legislature, and the governor to fix this inequity and provide financial relief to toll-payers.”

Read the complete Globe article.

This is our last best chance to ensure toll equity is in the Transportation Reform Bill!!!

Now is the time to call and email the Transportation Conference Committee members, the Governor, and your local State Representative and Senator!

Demand that Toll Equity stays in the transportation reform bill—Toll Equity is transportation reform!

Send them the Globe article. If you called or emailed—call again. If you didn’t call or email—call or email now.

The time to act is now!

Best regards,

Sandy, Bob, Doug & Joel

Dear Fellow Toll Payer,

We are at a critical time in our fight for fairness, and are gaining important support. Vital legislation is now in the Conference Committee on Transportation. The House version of the Transportation Reform Bill includes an amendment requiring tolls to be used for maintenance, capital expenditures, and operating expenses of the road upon which they are collected, and nothing else. The Senate bill lacks this amendment. Now the Governor and the Legislature are caught up in a titanic battle over whether the Transportation Bill should have a gas tax or a sales tax to fund it.

We must make sure that Toll Equity is not lost in this battle over which funding source is best.

The Time To Call Or Email The Conference Committee Members Is Now!

Now is the time to call and email every member of the Transportation Conference Committee and demand inclusion of the Toll Equity provision in the transportation bill.

• Sen. Steven Baddour, Methuen
• Sen. Stephen Brewer, Barre
• Sen. Robert Hedlund, Weymouth
• Rep. Joseph Wagner, Chicopee
• Rep. Charles Murphy, Burlington
• Rep. George Peterson, Grafton

The Time To Contact The Governor Is Now!

Please contact Governor Deval Patrick.

The Time To Contact Your Representative Or Senator Is Now!

Please contact your local representatives:

• Massachusetts Senate
• Massachusetts House of Representatives

As the power politics plays out over which revenue source is best to overhaul our Transportation infrastructure, a growing number of our representatives are taking courageous stands in support of Toll Equity. North Shore legislator, Rep. Lori Ehrlich, a tireless fighter for toll fairness and honesty supports our position that the current toll collection structure is unfair, unconstitutional, and unsustainable, and that new toll revenue will not fix the problem.

Send Rep. Ehrlich’s Call For Leadership On Toll Equity To Our Leaders!

Send Rep. Lori Ehrlich on Toll Equity: Lost In The Exhaust at to the Conference Committee, Governor, Your Reps, And Your Local News and ask them to take a stand for Toll Equity!

This is a once in 50-year opportunity to ensure Toll Equity is the law our leaders obey!

Best regards,
Sandy, Bob, Doug & Joel

I would like to thank you for taking your time to personally write me regarding this issue. I will certainly be making every effort for this as I am a commuter from Central Massachusetts and understand the frustration. My hope is that there will be some form of a toll equity provision in the Transportation Bill. Please do not hesitate to contact me again in the future should the need arise.

Sincerely,

Rep. George N. Peterson, Jr.
House Assistant Minority Leader
State House, Room 124
Boston, MA 02133
T: 617-722-2100
F: 617-722-2390
Rep.GeorgePeterson@hou.state.ma.us

Dear Fellow Toll Payer,

As you know, we have sued the Mass Turnpike Authority over the unconstitutional and unfair misappropriation of up to 58% of each dollar of our toll monies going to pay for “Big Dig” debt. As you also know, eastern Mass Pike tolls are expected to dramatically increase on July 1, 2009 from $1.25 to $2.00 on the pike and $3.50 to $7.00 for the Tunnels. But there is something we can all do to prevent that from happening!

In the next few weeks a special State House and Senate Conference Committee is expected to come out with the final version of the Proposed Transportation Reform Bill.

Unlike the Senate version of the bill, the House voted overwhelmingly to include a Toll Equity provision that requires that all tolls charged in the Commonwealth “shall be used only for the limited purposes of operating, maintaining, reconstructing and/or expanding the road, highway, bridge or tunnel on which the toll or fee is charged or collected.” Find more information about the Transportation Reform House bill here.

This Toll Equity amendment, if it becomes law, will stop the unconstitutional and unfair use of our Turnpike Toll money going to pay for “Big Dig” debt. That means that, if the law passes, the Mass Turnpike Authority will have to reduce the all ready unlawfully inflated tolls - not increase them.

We need everyone to call or write our political leaders and urge them to make sure that any Transportation Bill include the Toll Equity amendment passed by the House. In addition, we need everyone to write or call their local newspaper, TV, or radio station and let them know this is an important issue to you and that you are demanding that our Legislative and Executive branch leaders heed the people’s call.

Please write or call the offices of the Transportation Conference Committee Members:

• Sen. Steven Baddour, Methuen
• Sen. Stephen Brewer, Barre
• Sen. Robert Hedlund, Weymouth
• Rep. Joseph Wagner, Chicopee
• Rep. Charles Murphy, Burlington
• Rep. George Peterson, Grafton

Make sure that you also call or write the Governor’s Office and cc the Governor regarding any of your emails or letters to others. And don’t be shy about writing or calling your local newspaper, TV or radio station. Get the word out”

Toll Equity - it’s the law our leaders must obey!

Welcome to our TollEquity blog. It is time to get pumped up to make some improvements in our state government.  We need to make some noise so our leaders stop ignoring us!

We must contact our political leaders and urge them to make sure that any Transportation Bill include the Toll Equity amendment passed by the House.

All North Shore, frustrated toll payers should attend Gov. Patrick’s “Open Forum” on Thursday, May 21, 7:30-8:30 p.m. at the Marblehead High library and speak up for Toll Equity!