Massachusetts state highways, port to help cash-strapped Pike - how & how much to be worked out

Massachusetts transportation secretary and Turnpike chairman Bernard Cohen says the state highway department and port authority have agreed to help the state turnpike avoid toll increases as long as possible. This unusual move was agreed at a meeting four state transportation agency heads held yesterday.

The Mass Pike faces a $70m/year deficit without toll increases. With Big Dig principal repayments kicking in after a decade of interest-only borrowings that annual deficit is due to balloon to over $100m next year.

The terms of the Cohen money shuffle and the amount of the aid have yet to be worked out. The other state agencies may provide help to the Mass Pike in kind.

Like taking over maintenance and operations of the toll-free portion of the Big Dig?

Also seeking relief is the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority or 'T' which runs commuter rail, buses and historic underground trolleys in Boston.

Presumably such arrangements have to be approved by the boards of directors of these institutions, and the assistance has to conform to state laws and agency charters.

Last summer Cohen was saying that he was going to squeeze economies out of the various state transport authorities by combining them into a single Massachusetts Transportation Mega-Authority. That would have combined into one agency the airport, port, highways, transit 'T' and the Turnpike.

Nothing more has been heard of the idea apparently because of the complexity and cost of refinancing their separate debt portfolios, and the dubious promise of combining separate transportation modes.

It would at least have facilitated the interagency money shuffles Cohen now envisages.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-08-12