AUGUSTA, Maine — Lawmakers on Friday declined to order a probe of the Maine Turnpike Authority’s pending proposal to raise tolls, saying the authority’s executive director has been transparent about the toll increase proposal and made the case for it.
Members of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee were considering a request from Sen. Margaret Craven, D-Lewiston, to have the Legislature’s investigative arm look into the turnpike authority’s proposal to increase tolls in order to generate $26 million in additional revenue annually.
Craven said the proposed toll hikes fall disproportionately on the backs of residents of the Lewiston-Auburn area and western Maine, and she said she’s concerned that high toll costs could cause businesses in that region that need to transport goods along the 109-mile highway to be at a disadvantage.
“I don’t want businesses to move out of Lewiston because they can’t afford to operate there,” Craven said Friday.
But Craven’s colleagues on the oversight panel said there was no need for an investigation.
“I understand the equity piece, but under the circumstances, [the Maine Turnpike Authority is] doing as much as they can, and I think the director has said that it’s not done yet,” said Sen. Nancy Sullivan, D-Biddeford.
Maine Turnpike Authority board members meet on July 19 to vote on the toll increase. Changes would likely take effect Nov. 1.
The current proposal favored by turnpike authority staff — one of 10 options the authority considered — would hike tolls by $1 at the toll plaza in York, 75 cents at toll plazas in New Gloucester and West Gardiner, and 50 cents at Wells and Gray. The proposal also would raise the per-mile rate for users of the E-ZPass toll transponder to 8 cents from the current 6.7 cents.
Peter Mills, executive director of the turnpike authority, conceded Friday that residents of the Lewiston-Auburn area have long been subject to toll-related inequity. The Maine Turnpike opened in 1947, before the federal government began constructing the interstate highway system in Maine. Federal law generally prohibits tolls on those interstate highways, Mills noted.
“That’s an unfairness that has always plagued, and will for some years, plague the Lewiston-Auburn community,” he said, suggesting that drivers concerned about inequitable tolling purchase E-ZPass transponders and pay a per-mile rate for using the highway.
In her formal request letter to have the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, or OPEGA, investigate the toll hikes, Craven wrote that she’s surprised to see any proposal for an increase now, “given the past problems with the Turnpike Authority and the inefficiencies we discovered.”
If lawmakers had ordered an OPEGA review of the toll increases, it would have been the office’s second probe of the Maine Turnpike Authority in recent years. An examination by the agency in 2010 turned up more than $200,000 in unaccounted spending, a finding that ultimately led to a theft conviction and prison sentence for Paul Violette, the authority’s former longtime executive director.
Mills said the Maine Turnpike Authority needs to generate $26 million annually in additional revenue to fund $113 million in bridge repairs on northern sections of the 109-mile highway over the next five years, pay for $82 million in paving and other road improvements and pay off debt from a highway widening project completed in 2004.
Revenue growth for the turnpike has largely leveled off, he said, and the turnpike needs to take in a certain amount of revenue in order to comply with the terms of its debt and avoid a default. The turnpike authority takes in about $103 million annually from tolls and another $3 million each year from operating its service plazas.
“We have been able to bring in our construction contracts at less money than we thought; we reduced costs more rapidly,” Mills said, “but we’ve been victimized by the recession.”
Some of the road improvements on deck include major work on Exit 80 in Lewiston and a high-speed toll in New Gloucester, said Mills. He added that he has begun conversations with turnpike authority board members about raising the speed limit to 70 mph on much of the highway and installing a high-speed toll in West Gardiner.
See, Some folks in Augusta can do some things right!
Make the EZ Pass free like Mass and New York and more people would get them.
New York is free only if you use a credit card for auto-replenishment of funds. There’s a $10 deposit for the transponder if you use cash, check, money order or go online to add to the account balance. There is also $1 monthly account service fee for all NY, NJ and PA E-ZPass accounts. There is no monthly service fee for a Maine E-ZPass. Maine sells the transponders for $10 + tax and they last 8 to 9 years. Even with a “free” NY E-ZPass, a customer would pay $1 a month for the 8 to 9 years it lasts just for the privilege of having an account — $96 over 8 years. Not quite “free.”
Oh, yes, this explains it all. A tax hike is good cuz we can explain it away. Good reason not to use the stupid road anyway.
It appears to me that the MTA responder couldn’t possibly give an explanation that you’d accept, because you’ve already decided that you won’t accept one…..that’s OK, if that is what you want to do, but man up and admit it if that is the case.
After all, since you are anonymous, you can safely be candid.
I called it a tax hike. What do you call it?
Attempts to characterize a toll as a tax are not accurate. Misuse of the word “tax”
risks diminishing its significance and misleads the public. A motorist uses a toll road at their option;
if not taken, there is no toll. A tax is a charge levied and collected as continuous
revenue and used for maintaining general government operations. Tolls are
charged only to those who use the highway and not to all residents. Tolls are
charged at the time of usage, to compensate for usage and applied directly back into the operation and upkeep of the highway. They are not charged to
the population as a whole at regular intervals.
How come when others use the word tax, they’re wrong, but when the Tea Partiers do, they’re right?
You’re theory sounds made up. What about a gas tax then? The gas tax is “charged only to those who use [gas] and not to all residents”. Notice how it’s still called a tax?
To qualify as a user fee (toll), you must have a choice as to whether or not you pay it. It also must relate directly to a particular service that you can accept or reject, and to the number of times you use that service.
When it comes to roads, a toll on a highway or bridge is a true user fee. If you don’t want to pay to travel on a limited-access expressway or bridge, you can choose a different route. And every time you use a particular highway with a toll, you pay a fee. You don’t pay one toll and then use the Turnpike as many times as you like.The same is true about paying a fee to enter a national park. That’s a true user fee. You can choose not use a park if you don’t like the fee. Plus, once we pay the gas tax, we have no choice about where the money goes. When I fill up my car with gas, I can’t choose that the tax money goes to repair the potholes on my street instead of the brand new interchange on the other side of the state. However, once I do pay the gas tax, I can use one stretch of road or a bridge as many times as I like with no additional charge. That’s not a user fee. There’s a reason the gas tax is called a tax—because it is one.
So it’s not a tax if the money goes direction to a specific set of roads, but it is a tax if it goes to all the state’s roads? Come on, that’s a very weak distinction. It’s a tax.
I know you have an interest in claiming it’s not one given the connotations that come with the word “tax”, but tax or toll, they’re de facto the same thing.
Highways are really a communications network, and could be considered as a utility, similar to the telephone company. The utility may be publicly owned, as in the case of the state highways. Or they could be owned by a toll authority, such as the Maine Turnpike. They could even be privately owned (woods roads). There is always a cost involved in construction, capital improvements, and maintenance, as well as the cost of operation. This is no different than a utility such as a water company, sewer district, or internet provider.
Costs go up. So do rates. Whether it is a tax, or whether it is a user-fee, it is the price to be paid if you wish to use the utility.
Your income tax is indexed to the amount of money that you earn. The motor fuels tax is just a price per gallon. If costs for highways increase greatly over a period of time, reason suggests that the price per gallon should also increase, unless one wishes to engage in a form of deficit spending known as “letting things deteriorate.”
You said you call it a tax, and asked what I call it. I call it the rate for using the utility – analogous to the rates you pay any other utility.
have had new york ez pass since 1997. No $1 monthly fee so you are incorrect. It does require auto replenish to avoid a deposit, but even if you pay a deposit it gets returned when you close the account. It’s noticeable you had no reply regarding Mass.
hssports: There’s a
$1 per month account service fee for a PANYNJ account. You are correct.There is no fee for Metro Transit Authority, Thruway, or Bridge Authority accounts. There was no reply about Massachusetts because it’s not a valid comparison in any way. The Maine Turnpike uses only toll revenue. It has never used any federal or state tax money. Massachusetts receives hundreds of millions of dollars from the state general fund and has since been folded into the Mass DOT. Due to the elimination of MassPike’s independence its bond ratings are also much lower than the Maine Turnpike’s (which means significantly higher costs and debt repayments). New York is also a poor comparison as they too are not independent and receive many millions in state funds and a recent negative bond rating outlook. They are in the midst of raising tolls 45% for commercial vehicles partially for a $5.2 million to repair the Tappan Zee Bridge. Bond rating agencies state they need “an aggressive tolling regime” for a return to strong financial footing. Simplistic comparisons with toll entities of completely different structures and oversight by using the cost of a $10 transponder which lasts 8 to 9 years (just over $1 annually) will not raise the necessary funds to maintain MTA’s strong credit and continue necessary safety and maintenance projects. The Maine Turnpike uses only toll revenue, concession leases and minimal investment returns for all operations. Entities such as Mass and NY are heavily subsidized by state tax money besides tolls from motorists.
I also hope you have a Maine E-ZPass when traveling here otherwise you’re paying the cash rate with it on the Maine Turnpike.
My only trips are the same price either way so doesn’t matter. There is NO reason to make people buy these tags.
Not as true with the gas tax . . .
Also, meant to say you are showing your greed when you don’t allow all EZ pass users to get the ez pass rate. All users are making your turnpike more efficient. Why not reward everybody? Mass and Penn give their discounts to all. I really don’t care about all of the above when I can get my tag free. BTW…they keep track of how old it is and send me a new one before it quits working.
I wonder how many lawmakers get free EZ pass as one of their perks dont bite the hand that feeds you
No legislators or any elected officials receive a free E-ZPass or free travel on the Maine Turnpike.
if it quacks like a duck,walks like a duck and looks like a duck it probably is one
No, its not free….We, the taxpayers buy em one out of the kindness of our hearts…LOL
I am done with the “pike”
Transparent? The only legitimate reason for no probing, but it is OK for LePage in the eyes of lawmakers to make thing less transparent.
We should NOT have to pay for the mismanagement of the previous MTA director. The MTA had money to pay on this bond, it got spent on other things.
The revenue shortfall is due to declining and stagnant traffic numbers/forecasts. The most recent travel and revenue report from an independent 3rd party indicated $378 million less revenue through 2025 than was estimated from 2008 report. That is the reason for the toll increase.
Live with it! That’s what you C’s tell the rest of us. You are getting a lot more than most Mainers, Turnpike! How ya like dem apples?
Well isnt that a direct result of the jobs and businesses that have moved out of Maine, Suppliers that have chosen not to come up this far north, and Vacationers that are sick and tired of feeling like our governor treats this state like his own little perfect playland that he can do anything he wants to with it? I mean, what is the goal here? To push even more businesses and residents further south and eventually out of the state altogether? Honestly, its hard for anyone to drive down this stretch of road, see very little going on and have to travel 45 because of all of the cones, and actually feel like anything is being accomplished that that calls for a toll hike.
Has the MTA also considered that the rate hike over the years also contributed to a revenue shortfall? I think many can agree that money has been blown here more ways then one from our perspective, the widening project could have saved a lot of money by not doing it as well. Sure borrowed to widen but should have been spent on more worthy projects and maintenance instead.
It just seems coincidental that over the years the MTA hikes the cost up on the tolls faulting revenue and funding, then we learn the previous MTA director blew the departments money on unnecessary things, then we have a bond to pay back, but can’t and the solution is to raise the toll. It just seems the MTA had some money, now that they don’t it gets taken out on us.
For my wife and I, the Turnpike HAS become the alternate route. You’ll meet us often on route 100. Sometimes we get on at Gray to bypass that ridiculous barrier at New Gloucester. I suspect that we’ll enjoy the roads in the area between 95 and 295 a lot more often now. It seems to be easier to shoot at the other guys than to step in and run things.
Why is Mills suggesting that we increase the speed on the turnpike? The faster one goes, the less gasoline mileage we get. Plus, it should be a safety issue.
The Maine Turnpike is arguably the safest highway in the United States. There were 76 million transactions in 2011 and no fatalities. There has not been a fatality on the Maine Turnpike since September 2010.
Speed limits are often set according to “the 85th percentile rule.” The speed by which 85 percent of the traffic flows. That means the speeds should be set at a level at, or under, which 85 percent are driving. Such safety tests would surely take place before any change. Most drivers will not go faster than what they feel is comfortable and safe regardless of upper level speeds.
Gas mileage can surely be controlled by individual drivers who wish to remain at current speeds.
It doesn’t take a fatality for an accident to seriously impact the physical and financial security of a person. I would hope you would look at the number of accidents, not just the fatalities. I expect that if you increase the speed to 70 than there will be many who will just increase their speed by an additional 5.
Federal and state studies consistently show motorists are more likely to be involved in an accident when traveling 10mph or more below the average speed of highway traffic. That is only one factor where the 85% test would come into play. Mr. Mills simply stated that very preliminary discussions had taken place. There would certainly be a long rule emaking process which would include, but not be limited to, safety, speed and capacity studies.
Depends on how you are viewing the statistics. If you are just going by number of accidents, you aren’t playing fair. MA, NY, NJ, PA, MD, FL, OH, IN, IL, and the other toll roads states with the exception of maybe NH have multiple times more transactions on their toll roads than Maine. More people using the road, the more likely an accident occurs. What the Maine Turnpike does for transactions in a year, the George Washington Bridge does in a month, maybe less.
The GW realized 102 million trips in 2010. The Maine Turnpike had 76 million in 2011.
The hearings are a waste of time. The MTA are just going through the motions to make it look good.
So the Republicans are going along with a tax increase without looking into it or opposing it! Nice….. Dante has a place for those guys.
all of a sudden my comments have to be moderated? Wow. Have I been obsene?
Hey here’s an idea…how about doing away with the Maine Turnpike Authority? Stick with the original intent and do away with it. Oh wait…that would put government hacks out fo work…sorry. Lost my head.
The money that was borrowed to widen the highway still has to be repaid. Are you suggesting raises taxes to do that?
Maine Turnpike… I have a question for route 25, can you get that road to speak to me please?
Well played. I’ve sent 25 an email and I’ll get back to you if I receive an answer.