Maine governor looks at absorbing Turnpike into state DOT after talk of tolling free interstates

The siren song of economies of consolidation is now being heard in Maine. Governor John Baldacci (Dem) is having staff look at the ramifications of turning operations of the state Turnpike over to the state DOT, retaining the Maine Turnpike Authority as a state financing agency only.

Recently the legislature's joint transportation committee voted 12 to 1 to authorize a study by the Turnpike Authority of extending tolls on I-95 to north of Augusta where it is presently free, and on I-295 Scarborough to Gardiner. They appropriated $40k to pay for the study of tolls on presently free interstates. (MAPQUEST ERROR: In the map below the Turnpike south of Portland is wrongly marked I-195. It is in fact I-95.)

I-295 runs parallel with the tolled section of I-95, connecting with it smoothly at both ends, so it probably attracts some longdistance traffic away from the Turnpike as a free road.

After the legislators vote for a study Governor Baldacci immediately issued a statement saying he opposed adding new tolls on existing free Interstate highway system.

"No new tolls in my term"

He declared: "I can assure you it will not happen during my term in office" (which runs to the end of 2010).

Then he added: "Before they start talking about tolls on the Interstate, we need to cut the administrative costs of operating a separate Turnpike Authority and Department of Transportation. We must find every possible efficiency in the way we manage our transportation network, and we must make sure that our current resources are being used effectively."

Baldacci's website has no mention whatever of his party affiliation - if I were a Democrat I'd keep it secret too - but deep researches reveal he's a Democrat. So are majorities in both houses of the Maine legislature, so this is a nice intra-Democrat party contest.

Baldacci (b1955) has done nothing but politics since he graduated from college. A former state and US politician he was elected governor in 2002.

He has shown little interest in transportation affairs but he's big on consolidating government. In his first term he pushed a "regionalization" scheme to have a number of state government programs provided by larger regional groupings of local government. He is now pushing the consolidation of school districts.

Legislators have said in response to Baldacci that they will look at all possible cost savings including consolidation.

Around the US

Toll operations have been consolidated into the state DOT in:
- Virginia
- Delaware
- New Hampshire
- Florida
- Texas
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Washington
- California

In Kentucky tolls were also phased out though there are now moves to renew them for new projects.

In Washington they were abolished but have been restored under the state DOT on the Tacoma Narrows and many new tolls are planned.

In Indiana the state DOT operated Toll Road was built by a turnpike authority, then consolidated into the state DOY and most recently privatized for 75 years.

In Florida the Turnpike Enterprise reports to the state secretary of transportation but has substantial autonomy within the DOT. In California tolling is now being steadily moved from the state DOT to regional authorities and counties - devolution.

States with toll authorities governed by boards of directors with varying degrees of independence include:
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- Rhode Island
- Illinois
- Pennsylvania
- Ohio
- New York
- New Jersey
- Maryland
- West Virginia
- Oklahoma
- Kansas
- North Carolina

In some of these states the boards of directors are completely subservient to the state governor (NJ, NY, MD, and arguably several others). Some have been combative, most notably Massachusetts under Gov Mitt Romney. He fought continuously with the Turnpike Authority and especially its chairman and chief exec, fellow Republican Matt Amorello, a contest that continued through Romney's whole term and dubbed Mitt vs Matt. Then near the end of his term Romney proposed abolishing tolls and transferring a detolled Turnpike to the state DOT - an election stunt to be sure because there was no money to pay off the Turnpike's debt or maintain it apart from tolls.

Under a new governor Deval Patrick (Dem) tolls are being increased but the idea is being floated of merging the Turnpike into some larger super-authority

In Pennsylvania the Turnpike Commission is rated by some the most largest source of political power in the state after soundly defeating the Governor's efforts to get a bill introduced in the legislature to privatize.

Regional toll authorities in Houston, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Orange Co CA involve a mix of local and state politics, and the bistate toll authorities running river crossings (Philadelphia, New York) and binational authorities at the river and lake border crossings of Canada and Mexico round out the list.

There is no evidence that there is more efficiency where toll roads are operated by state departments. It may be that costs are lower but along with lower costs usually go lower standards of service - as dramatically demonstrated in the Valentines Day blizzard in the Allegheny mountains this year when the state DOT's interstates were closed for days by snow and ice while the Turnpike's roadways in the same area remained clear throughout. Generally higher standards of policing, pavement repair, roadside maintenance and quicker debris removal are probably the reason tollroads generally have lower fatality rates than freeways.

State DOTs already broken up into largely autonomous districts

State DOTs are already large organizations with operations so spread out geographically they usually are forced to divide themselves into districts. The districts have considerable autonomy.

Maine DOT already has five regions.

Usually tollroads that are merged into state DOTs form a separate district, bureau or region. In this case little changes in terms of sharing resources. There is just another layer of bureaucracy on top for the turnpike district to negotiate.

Tolling itself is an activity the rest of the DOT has no need for and no expertise so it has nothing to contribute.

Another dilemma is that the more fully the turnpike staff are integrated into a state DOT the less connection they have with the tollroad customers, so they tend to be less responsive.

Some turnpikes nominally integrated into DOTs keep the turnpike division quite distinct and give it considerable autonomy - Florida Turnpike Enterprise within Florida DOT is an example. In that case the Turnpike might as well be an independent agency.

Consolidation is therefore something of a distraction from the issue the legislators were pursuing of how to raise new revenues. But then politics is often about distractions.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-10-07