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State faces new lawsuit over the Big Dig
By adamg on Sun, 05/10/2009 - 8:16pm
This time it's from a group of motorists who want the return of all money the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority has funneled to the Big Dig, Blue Mass. Group reports. The Massachusetts Turnpike Equity Trust says:
We have organized a trust approved by the Middlesex Probate Court that is open to any MassPike toll payer who has paid tolls at Route 128, Allston/Brighton, Sumner/Callahan Tunnels, or the Ted Williams Tunnel. We are trying to remedy and change the unfair toll collection policies of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority documents indicate that up to 58 cents of every dollar collected on the Boston Extension (from route 128 into Boston), and the Sumner/Callahan and Ted Williams tunnels is unlawfully diverted to pay for the Central Artery project ("Big Dig"). We toll payers are fed up with our toll monies being diverted unfairly to pay for the costs associated with the "Big Dig" - an unlawful tax that has unfairly burdened toll payers and bankrupted the Turnpike Authority. We urge other toll payers to join us in our fight for the return of our unlawfully expropriated toll monies.
Their lawyer is Jan Schlichtman, the guy who led the Woburn toxic-chemicals-in-the-water lawsuit.
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Comments
I'm not really following
I'm not really following their logic here. Is there actually a law on the books that says money from a toll road has to be spent on that road? I seriously doubt it. This all seems to me to boil down to "mah buttz, you hurtz dem".
yah, but...
I feel their pain :) But the debt is owed by the state. Does it do any good to argue which pile of tax money the bond payments come out of??
Umm, johnmcboston ... how
Umm, johnmcboston ... how about they decide to just add an extra tax for everyone living in your zip code to pay for it?
That's what the Pike tolls amounts to.
Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel
I'm not really buying their argument, but even if I were to, wasn't the Ted Williams part of the Big Dig project?
What's the point?
...of this suit? It's not a big secret that Pike tolls paid for the Big Dig. Newsflash, drivers: You have the option of not using Interstate 90. You pay a premium to use a road on which you can drive 65 MPH that is maintained for that purpose.
The Big Dig is way over schedule and way over budget.
As for the complaint about the Mass Pike being expensive, yes, I agree to that. However, there are times when I'd rather spend some more money and take a road that's safer, better maintained, and has an advantage in that it's a straight-away hwy without all those bottlenecks to contend with, and in the fact that they warn drivers way, way in advance of approaching exits.
Better maintained
Yes, the Pike is a well maintained road... they do actually spend a tiny fraction of what they steal from us to maintain the road. 58% (the Pike board's number) is put to Big Dig debt. If you are happy with this setup, you'd be happy to 58% gas tax increase? And if you are commuting from Metrowest, Rt 9 would take hours to get to Boston. Other major roads don't have tolls, period.
Well....
First of all, I, too now reside in the city, and don't commute from MetroWest.
Secondly, when I drive long distances, both in and out of state, I often use the Mass Pike. I stand by my position that it's better maintained and safer than most other state/interstate highways for the reasons that I mentioned above.
Years ago (back in the mid-1970's), prior to the Big Dig, when I was living in my old home town roughly 20 miles due northwest of Boston, I used to commute to and from school, using the Mass Turnpike, in all kinds of weather, and it was much safer and better maintained back then, and worth having to pay the tolls. The Big Dig is irrelevent in that respect.
Frankly, while I'm not crazy about tolls either, the tolls on the turnpike, imho, are peanuts compared to the amount of unnecessary money that's gone into the Big Dig. I also might add that, at least on the Mass Turnpike, unlike with the Big Dig, I've never worried about the possibility of a slab of tunnel ceiling falling onto my car.
A 58% gas tax increase is too much--again, that's agreed.
Pike Equity Trust - Poseurs?
Follow the link to the Trust's site and have a good look at the photo on the front page. Can any of you think of an interchange on the Massachusetts Turnpike, or for that matter, the Metropolitan Highway system that even remotely resembles that? I am pretty sure that I have been through each tollbooth on the Turnpike, and the only "barrier" type tolls that extend across the whole roadway, like the one shown in the picture, are at East Boston (where near where I-90 meets Rt. 1A), 128 and in Stockbridge. It looks too wide for any of those (and FAR too wide in the case of Stockbridge.
I have not finished reading the compliant, but I have to say that at this point, I think the plaintiff's chance of surviving past the inevitable motion to dismiss/motion for summary judgment is slim. Further, if you can't even exert the effort to get stock photo of one of the toll plazas that you're supposedly so pissed about, I question your commitment.
You forgot two other locations -
Weston and Allston-Brighton.
He said "128" which is Weston
and that photo most definitely is not Allston.
Oops, missed that.
Thanks.
Mass Turnpike Lawsuit
Here is a video interview with attorney Jan Schlichtmann who just filed a class-action lawsuit claiming tolls collected on the Massachusetts Turnpike are an illegal tax.
http://www.speakingofjustice.com/_300-Million-Mass...