Massachusetts

Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire have agreed to treat one another's toll violators according to local toll enforcement rules. The agreement provides for end-of-the-line sanctions when motorists who have used tollroads fail to pay tolls, ignore late notices and violation fees.

Local police say former Mass Pike chief Matt Amorello was "extremely intoxicated" and had to be pepper sprayed to get him out of his smashed vehicle in the early hours of Saturday morning. Amorello was clinging to the steering wheel refusing to accept arrest when he was pepper sprayed. Unwilling or unable to walk he was then dragged to the police cruiser, the police report says.

Massachusetts DOT is seeking a new Deputy Director of Statewide Tolling to "transition existing toll collection operations to Open Road Tolling or All Electronic Tolling.”  The move reported first by Hilary Chabot at the Boston Herald pays up to $102k/yr and is open only to state employees.

The tolling deputy director would also assess installation costs, savings from eliminating toll collectors, and likely traffic improvements from free-flow all-electronic tolling.

Mary Z Connaughton, former Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board member and an accountant by profession says folding the Turnpike into a new state department of transportation as "reform" is a flop. She notes in a column she has just written - published in MetroWest Daily News Dec 13 - that claims before the merger of a $6.5b saving over 20 years are now being downplayed by the Patrick administration.

Turnpike pay scales and conditions often 50% higher than the state highway department are causing major problems in efforts to integrate the two into a new Massachusetts DOT. The incoming secretary and present Turnpike CEO Jeffrey Mullan said this week in the state legislature that reconciling the differences presented "significant challenges."

Mass Turnpike CEO Jeffrey Mullan has written that the state Treasurer Timothy Cahill committed "several basic inaccuracies" in comments he made suggesting a settlement of the class action lawsuit led by Jan Schlichtmann. The suit claims use of Turnpike tolls to support the untolled Big Dig are illegal unconstitutional and unfair. It seeks refunds and an end to the practice of using tolls for untolled roads.

It sounds like man bites dog, but Internet giant Google is renting space on old-fashioned highway billboards to promote its on-line business. As part of its competition with Microsoft it is promoting Google Apps, the search company's "suite" of internet-based programs covering the ground of MS Office.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority in its protracted bargaining with the state today (2008-06-24) postponed a scheduled meeting on toll rates to Monday (2008-06-29). The Turnpike has voted to raise tolls by about 60% July 1, but board members say they'll cancel the hikes if they get $100m/year in support from the state budget. That $100m/year subsidy must continue for the term of $2200m of bonds they floated to pay for the untolled Big Dig.

Smart, informed, curious, hardworking, fearless, a good speaker and a quick writer, Mary Z Connaughton is the kind of board member every public toll authority could use. An accounting teacher, she is also a partner in a business development firm. Here's her explanation of how the Massachusetts Turnpike got into a financial mess with "swaptions" - an edited version of a piece she did for a blog at the Boston Herald - full version here:

Massachusetts Turnpike Authority's funding of free portions of the Big Dig has long been regarded as bad public policy, and as unfair. It was a dirty political deal on behalf of northern and southern constituencies on the free I-93 portion at the expense of the tolled west on I-90. Wrong yes, but illegal, unconstitutional?