Toll Equity Trust Blog

Lawyers for nearly 2,000 members of the Massachusetts Turnpike Toll Equity Trust will today ask a Middlesex Superior Court judge to stop the Turnpike Authority from continuing to divert toll revenues to pay for Big Dig debt.

At a hearing scheduled for today at 2 p.m. in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, attorney Jan Schlichtmann will seek the declaratory judgment and restraining order against the Turnpike to ensure funds aren’t continuing to flow to the Big Dig from tollpayers west of and along the shore north of Boston.

“The Legislature and Governor made clear in the transportation reform bill that toll equity is the law of the land and money paid by tollpayers must only go to those tolled roads – now it’s time to hold the Turnpike to that promise,” said Schlichtmann, lead attorney in the Turnpike suit.

The toll equity provision in the transportation reform bill mirrors one being advocated by the Trust, led by former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, former Romney administration Chief Legal Counsel Daniel Winslow, Schlictmann and the lead plaintiffs in the case. The efforts continue the class action lawsuit brought in May by Schlictmann on behalf of four tollpayers, Sandra Murphy, Joel Feingold, Robert Ackley and Doug Barth. The Trust has already grown to nearly 2,000 beneficiaries seeking repayment of some of the estimated $450 million diverted from toll revenues to pay for non-tolled portions of the Big Dig the last three years alone.

In court filings today, the lawyers plan to argue that the Turnpike Authority does not deny the diversion and that allowing it to continue would mean continued harm to tollpayers. According to filings from the Trust lawyers, the $100 million dedicated to the Turnpike in the transportation reform law, in addition to the existing $25 million-per-year payment, is more than sufficient to cover the existing Big Dig debt.

Despite repeated request to the Turnpike Authority from tollpayers’ representatives and inquires by the press, the MTA has refused to indicate that it will cease its practice.

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

Inequity on the roadways

July 1, 2009
TODAY, for the first time in more than a decade, drivers coming into Boston on the Mass. Pike or through the Sumner Tunnel have good reason to celebrate when they pay their tolls — yes, celebrate.

A groundbreaking provision in the transportation reform bill signed into law Friday by Governor Deval Patrick takes a bold step toward solving an obvious inequity on our roadways.

But as leaders in the 2,000-person effort to bring equity to an unfair and unconstitutional tolling system, we see some troubling signs on the road ahead.

It has already been suggested that the “toll equity” enshrined in the law may not, in fact, be toll equity at the booth. That will not stand. The toll payers and taxpayers of Massachusetts will demand nothing less and we intend to hold our state leaders accountable.

For 11 years, drivers who use the Metropolitan Highway System (the Mass. Pike from Route 128 into Boston) and the Sumner, and Ted Williams tunnels have been subjected to an unfair tax. More than half of every dollar collected has been used not for the tolled services of those roads but to pay for the costs of the construction of the Big Dig.

This tax masquerading as a fee, felt most keenly by North Shore and Metrowest commuters, has cost toll payers nearly half a billion dollars in diverted tolls in the last three years alone. The Legislature and the governor appear to be, at long last, taking bold action meant to change that inequity.

The new law includes a provision that mandates that tolls “shall be applied exclusively to” those tolled roads. The plain words of that provision should prohibit any further diversion of tolls to pay the multi-billion-dollar debt service and the onerous operation and maintenance costs of the toll-free sections of the Big Dig, including the I-93 tunnels through Boston from the North and South and the Zakim Bridge.

On the day the governor signed the transportation bill, the Supreme Judicial Court underscored the victory by affirming the basic principles of fee fairness. The SJC’s decision in Silva v. Attleboro made it clear that fees charged by the government must be used solely for the service being offered in order to avoid taxation without representation.

All at once, the Legislature, governor, and judiciary appear to be standing up for fee fairness.

But toll payers have reason to be worried. Before the ink dried on the reform bill, Turnpike Authority Director Mary Connaughton, an outspoken advocate for toll payers, raised a serious concern about the Authority’s commitment to toll equity. Connaughton suggested that the new law may be interpreted by the Authority to mean toll dollars can be spent on the entire debt service on the Central Artery Project.

The fear is that officials will not adhere to the plain words of the toll equity provision and will continue to apply toll dollars to all the non-tolled portions of the Big Dig that are used by millions of travelers free of charge.

Such a move would not only keep the unconstitutional system in place but it would, in some cases, double the inequity - starting today. Under the new law, all tolls collected in the Commonwealth - including those on the Tobin Bridge and the Western Turnpike (from Route 128 west) can be used for any transportation purpose on any state roadway.

Unless the toll equity provision is followed, all tolls collected could be diverted to pay for the multi-billion-dollar Big Dig debt still outstanding and a whole new, much larger group of toll payers will be victimized.

We must not let that happen. We must demand that our leaders follow the plain words of the Constitution and the toll equity law. We must continue to insist that our leaders sit down to resolve the past inequity. Only then will anyone be able to say we ended, at last, the Big Dig culture that for too long has inequitably taxed the toll payers.

Jan Schlichtmann is lead attorney for the Massachusetts Turnpike Toll Equity Trust lawsuit and Sandra Murphy, a nurse from Natick, is the lead plaintiff and a founding member of the trust.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

From the June 26 Toll Equity press release:

With the bold sweep of a pen, Governor Deval Patrick today ended 11 years of toll inequity by signing a landmark transportation reform bill which includes a provision guaranteeing toll equity in the Commonwealth.

“Toll payers at last have leaders in the State House who say yes to equity, yes to basic fairness and no to the inequitable Big Dig burden foisted for too long upon the people of MetroWest and the North Shore,” said Scott Harshbarger, co-trustee of the Turnpike Toll Equity Trust and former Attorney General.

A respected financial expert from Babson College hired by the Trust estimated that more than $420 million has been illegally diverted from the Pike tolls to pay for the Big Dig in the last three years alone.

With toll equity now law, the Trust said it is time to work out a similarly bold solution for the past inequities.

The Trust has not advocated any one solution for paying for the past inequities among drivers. However, the Turnpike now has more than $180 million in reserves and hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate assets.

“This is a time to come to the table, sit down and hammer out a solution,” said Harshbarger. “We do not ask, nor do we expect, a dollar-for-dollar reimbursement of the estimated $422 million illegally diverted from toll payers in just the last three years. But fairness dictates that we sit down and work out an equitable solution for all.”

**Below is the language from the final legislation affirming toll equity**

All revenue received from tolls, rates, fees, rentals and other charges for transit over or through all tolled roads, bridges or tunnels shall be applied exclusively to: (i) the payment of existing debt service on such tolled roads; and (ii) the cost of owning, maintaining, repairing, reconstructing, improving, rehabilitating, policing, using, administering, controlling and operating such tolled roads.

Toll Equity Included in the Transportation Bill!

Statement from Scott Harshbarger, co-trustee of the Massachusetts Turnpike Toll Equity Trust:

“The people of the Commonwealth and the cause of equity among drivers scored a huge victory tonight with the embrace of toll fairness by the transportation reform conference committee. For too long, the people west of and along the shore north of Boston have been wrongly shouldering the financial burden of The Big Dig and it appears tonight as if the Legislature will reverse that policy.

“While we haven’t yet seen the final language of the bill, the statements by the Speaker and Senate President make clear that it is time, at last, for toll equity now. We look forward to this change being made and signed into law by Governor Patrick. The thousands of members of the Toll Equity Trust and all the drivers of Massachusetts congratulate those who took this principled stand for fairness.”

Read the Senate and House’s press release.

From the Boston Globe article:

House and Senate leaders announced tonight that they had reached agreement on a sweeping transportation overhaul that includes the elimination of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority – an agency that has long been a symbol of bloat and inefficiency.

More details to come!

Scott Harshbarger and Jan Schlichtmann sit down with WGBH Greater Boston’s Emily Rooney.

Additionally, a Marblehead Reporter editorial quoted Representative Lori Ehrlich:

“The Principles at the core of this lawsuit such as fairness, equity and potentially unlawful taxation are what I have been discussing since last fall’s announcement that tunnel tolls were going to double to $7,” Ehrlich said after the hearing. “This inequity, which is literally putting jobs out of reach for people in our region, was set up in 1997. Attempts to finally fix it are playing out in all three branches of government.”

Channel 5’s Pam Cross reported on the Toll Equity suit, “Pike Users Strike Back, File Tolls Lawsuit”. Be sure to check out the great video coverage on the site.

Jan R. Schlichtmann, the attorney who gained fame battling a chemical company and ended up as the main character in a Hollywood movie about the case, is leading a team of lawyers filing the suit that includes former state Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and former Gov. Mitt Romney counsel Daniel B. Winslow.

The class-action lawsuit includes 1,650 plaintiffs from 21 states who say tolls are supposed to be used for the use of the Turnpike rather than the $13 billion Big Dig project.

The lawsuit, filed in Middlesex District Court, asserts that 58 percent of tolls collected go to paying for Big Dig roads.

To pay for the returned tolls, the state would have to choose between raising taxes, imposing tolls on Interstate 93, or requiring the Turnpike Authority to sell some of its real estate, the Boston Globe reported.

Braude Beat on NECN takes a closer look at Toll Equity. “It’s a really important lawsuit.”

Scott Harshbarger and Jan Schlichtmann talk to NECN in their feature “Lawsuit against Turnpike gains momentum”

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