Resisting Mass Pike toll hike with grit - Bernard Cohen's political posturing (OPINION)

Bernard Cohen Massachusetts secretary of transportation and chairman of the Turnpike says he "isn't prepared to support" the toll increases that other board members say are inevitable. Cohen says he's meeting with leaders of various state transport agencies shortly "to discuss how we can collectively tackle the challenges we are facing through cost savings, efficiencies, and reforms with the goal of preventing further burdens being placed on consumers."

This has been Cohen's consistent line since he was appointed July 2007.

To his credit he's given up on the fanciful notion that consolidation of transit, the turnpike and the port into some kind of mega-agency will save money. He may have noticed that New York's done exactly that and the results are not pretty. Their mega-MTA faces even larger financial deficits and it's tolls are way higher than those in Boston.

Also to be fair to Cohen and the Patrick administration the Mass Turnpike under their appointed executive director Alan LeBovidge has made a serious commitment to making economies of the kind they speak of - managerial style cost savings and efficiencies. By every indication the Mass Pike is now better run than it was under the several chaotic Republican administrations of the past.

Trouble is the economies being made by LeBovidge are small - pennies - compared to the Turnpike's increasing costs - dollars - because the Turnpike Authority has way bigger inflation on the cost side. For example the Turnpike is due to begin making repayment of principal on what started as interest-only debt of $2 billion incurred on behalf of the toll-free portion of the Big Dig - I-93's Tip O'Neill Tunnel and the Zakim Bridge. And these toll-free facilities especially the tunnels have big bills for electricity, maintenance and staff.

Significant economies at the Turnpike well beyond those of LeBovidge are easy to think of but above his pay grade to decide, and unlikely to be adopted by an administration deferential to labor unions:

- converting the turnpike to cashless all-electronic toll systems would easily cut toll collection costs by a half, possibly two-thirds

- going to contractors for other functions like road maintenance, snow plowing could also produce serious economies

A longterm lease/toll concession of the Turnpike would not just save money but generate a hefty upfront fee for the state - some billions of dollars, the number of billions depending on the terms.

This isn't even a subject of polite discussion in Boston, it seems.

Toll increases on existing I-90 Turnpike east-west could also be avoided by imposing tolls on I-93, the north-south portion of the Big Dig whose users presently pay nothing to help defray the billions expended on their behalf.

A $3 toll on 150k users a day of the Big Dig's I-93 tunnel and bridge would raise $164m/year, arithmetic it shouldn't take a meeting of Cohen's agency heads to do. New Yorkers think a $3 toll on a bridge or a tunnel is a bargain.

No serious 'dollars' measure like this seems to be on the table however.

With only pennies to be saved by stuff that's easy politically the Turnpike's board members say they have to have more revenue.

Cohen's fellow Turnpike board members:

Michael Angelini: "I think it’s just a matter of arithmetic. Unless there’s some other source of funds from the (state) or the tooth fairy, there’s going to be a toll increase."

Mary Connaughton: "I don’t see how the Turnpike can continue without some sort of revenue boost."

(Those two are direct quotes from the Boston Herald's Hillary Chabot this morning.)

Politician Bernard Cohen seems to be positioning himself to say he fought the fight against toll increases to the bitter end, when eventually he concedes the arithmetic.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-08-09