Pike board may delay vote on tolls

LYNN – The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority may delay its pending vote today on whether to dramatically increase bridge, tunnel and highway tolls in an effort to pay off Big Dig debt.The authority’s Board of Directors will more likely simply discuss the increases and the tentative April implementation date, giving Gov. Deval Patrick an opportunity to forge a transportation master plan.Any such state plan, albeit created by the governor, the Senate or the House of Representatives, presumably would address the whopping debt while providing motorists and commuters with affordable options.The Legislature, under House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, has been working on a transportation plan that includes the possibility of increasing the state’s gasoline tax now that fuel prices are below $2 a gallon.Turnpike Authority spokesman Mac Daniel confirmed to reporters that tolls are on today’s meeting agenda as a discussion item but could be voted on should members decide to proceed in that manner. The board meeting was previously postponed for a week while the governor put final touches on his so-called transportation master plan.Mary Z. Connaughton, a Turnpike Authority board member, said she expects the vote will be further pushed back to give the governor and the Legislature additional time to deliver an alternative to toll hikes. Patrick recommended the toll hikes as a painful but necessary solution to the budget crisis.The proposed toll hikes would double the cash fee for tunnels from $3.50 to $7, making them among the most expensive in the nation. Toll booths inside Route 128 would also see fee increases from $1.25 to $2.North Shore commuters who depend on the Tobin Bridge, Sumner Tunnel and Ted Williams Tunnel to enter or pass through Boston would be particularly hard hit by the increases since the only other option is following already-clogged back streets and secondary highways.”The Turnpike Authority could still take a vote tomorrow on the toll increases,” Rep. Steve Walsh, a Lynn Democrat, said Wednesday. “I’ll be there to speak just in case, but I think we won a short-term victory in that the people of the North Shore got together to show the inequity of the toll increases. In doing so, they got the governor to take another look.”According to Walsh, the Turnpike Authority is still looking at an April implementation date for toll increases. Walsh filed a bill during the previous legislative session that would freeze all toll hikes until Dec. 31, 2009.”We refiled that toll-free bill last week,” he said, explaining that the latest transportation plan vision hailing from the House could see new tolls along I-93 and other access roads feeding into Boston’s Central Artery. “We hope that puts additional pressure on all involved to look at all the options, not just increasing the tolls that impact the North Shore.”Other bills filed introduce an array of options, including open-road tolling, a state gas tax increase, leasing Massachusetts Turnpike service areas, selling or leasing Turnpike-owned properties, and a $1 or $2 tax on every airline ticket processed at Logan International Airport.”Speaker DiMasi has put together a smaller working group that will focus on transportation reform,” said Walsh, noting another transportation plan would likely emerge from the Senate.”We would take the best parts of each of them,” he said, explaining that the Logan Airport tax could bring in $30 million annually, based on a $1 per ticket tax and the number of passengers.”Most of these people are just passing through Boston. But there’s an obligation on the part of travelers to help pay for the Big Dig because it gives them easier access to the airport. That way, the burden doesn’t come on the shoulders of the working people of the North Shore.”The so-called open-road tolling provision would charge motorists a fee as they drive along the highway, either through a special sticker or a transponder, and would not involve additional tollbooths.”I just don’t t