Hearing Today for Bill Proposing Toll Removal

Senate President Peter Bragdon will present a bill today to the Ways and Means Committee that proposes eliminating the ramp tolls on the Everett Turnpike.

Senate Bill 3, co-sponsored by Sen. Charles Morse, R-Salem, Reps. Dick Hinch, R-Merrimack, Dick Barry, R-Merrimack, Kathleen Stroud, R-Merrimack, Jeanine Notter, R-Merrimack and Brenda Grady, D-Merrimack, would, if passed, remove the toll booths from Exits 10, 11 and 12 within 60 days of passage.

The committee hearing puts the bill in the Ways and Means Committee's hands to determine whether the bill has merit enough to bring it before a full vote on the Senate and House floors.

This is by far not the first time a bill like this has been proposed.

Legislators, primarily from Merrimack, but with support of others, have been fighting for several years for toll relief for the residents of Merrimack who must pay tolls at every ramp to the Everett Turnpike in town. The Merrimack exits are the ones on the Everett Turnpike that have toll booths on them.

Last year, local legislators proposed two bills aimed at relieving Merrimack of it's toll burden.

HB 1257, like SB3 being heard tomorrow, proposed removal of all the ramp tolls at exits 10, 11 and 12. Turnpike Administrator Chris Waszczuk said last year that doing so would create a further revenue loss of $1.3 million. HB 1192 would have deepened the discount already given to EZ Pass holder by allowing them to travel through the tolls for free after 16 round trips – or 32 trips – in a single month.

Rep. David Campbell, D-Nashua, also proposed a toll-related bill last year, that would eliminate the ramp tolls at exits 11 and 12 but retain the ones at Exit 10 and move the Bedford Plaza to Exit 10 as an open road tolling system. Opponents of Campbell's bill argued that this would increase the burden on Merrimack residents as an estimate 75 percent of the town's commuters head south on the Turnpike and would there for cause them to actually pay more to go to work through a more expensive toll booth.

None of the bills made it through to the House or Senate floors for a vote.

The ramps were constructed as part of an agreement more than 25 years ago in which local officials agreed to the tolls as a way to pay the expense of adding off and on ramps to the highway that weren't in the original design.

Merrimack residents and officials say enough is enough, they've paid more than their fair share.

If the bill were to pass The Department of Transportation states this bill, as introduced, "may decrease state restricted revenue by $3,950,370 in FY 2014, $4,003,528 in FY 2015, $4,060,420 in FY 2016, and $4,121,039 in FY 2017, and decrease state restricted expenditures by $1,534,425 in FY 2014, $1,565,114 in FY 2015, $1,596,416 in FY 2016, and $1,628,344 in FY 2017. There will be no fiscal impact on county or local revenue and expenditures."

It would also force the relocation or laying off of 22 full-time and 16 part-time toll attendant staff who currently work at the three locations.

"This staff will either be laid off or transferred to other plazas should the tolls be eliminated," the bill states. "The Department did not factor the costs associated with possible layoffs into its analysis of the bill’s fiscal impact."

Legislators in favor of removing the tolls say a more equitable way to bring in revenue would be to impose a gas tax so that the burden does not fall to one town and its visitors.

Two weeks ago, Merrimack Reps. Notter and Lenette Peterson proposed a bill before the same committee that would remove the tolling at Exit 12 only, to provide some relief given the exit's proximity to the new Exit 13, which has no tolls on it.

Notter said after the hearing that it would be nice to at least provide some relief to those who have to take the long way around or pay a tolls just to go from the north end of town to the center of town.

SB3 is scheduled to be heard in Room 103 at the Statehouse at 9:45 a.m. Read the full text of the bill.