Mass. DOT secretary proposes erecting tolls at state borders
Apr. 22—CONCORD — The Massachusetts secretary of transportation said she's seriously considering a plan to erect toll booths along the state borders to deal with a revenue crunch, but Gov. Maura Healey said she is not proposing border tolls.
Monica Tibbits-Nutt offered the suggestion as one of several ideas during her speech April 10 at the annual celebration of the Walk Massachusetts organization in Cambridge, Mass.
Tibbits-Nutt heads a task force charged with coming up with a new financial model for transportation by the end of this year.
"This (task force) is actually different because we're not censoring it," she said. "I'm going to talk about tolling. I'm going to talk about charging TNCs (transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft) more," Tibbits-Nutt said.
"I'm going to talk about potentially charging more for package deliveries, charging more for payroll tax — basically going after everybody who has money. And when I'm talking tolling, I'm talking at the borders. I'm not talking within Massachusetts."
Tibbits-Nutt was blunt about her approach throughout the speech.
"We're going after all the people who should be giving us money to make our transportation better and our communities better," she added.
Tibbits-Nutt said during her address that Healey will back her up.
"This governor likes fights. She does. She loves to fight," Tibbits-Nutt said.
Healey on Monday released a statement, however, that her transportation secretary's comments "do not represent the views of this administration and to be clear, I am not proposing tolls at any border."
Healey did say she informed Tibbits-Nutt of her position and added she has "confidence in her leadership."
Tibbits-Nutt said there's nothing the state can do about limiting the purchase of large personal trucks.
"I am 100 percent passing judgment on someone who wants to drive basically an 18-wheeler as their personal car. We have no control over it," she said.
Linking excise tax to car/truck weight
Asked if she would consider hiking the excise tax for those who drive heavier cars and trucks, Tibbits-Nutt said. "Oh, that's already on my list."
Later she added, "I didn't agree to that, I said it wasn't a bad idea and I would at least look and see if any other state has done it."
Tibbits-Nutt said police need to write more speeding tickets because car and truck drivers are "not slowing down."
Greg Moore, state director of Americans for Prosperity, a fiscally conservative group, panned the toll booth idea.
"This effort to raise the cost to enter Massachusetts is both a cry for help and an effort that will backfire on the Commonwealth. The fact that a state that recently passed a multi-billion-dollar tax hike on their successful residents still can't afford to fix their roads and need to try to hammer Granite Staters and other New Englanders shows just how fiscally irresponsible that state is," Moore said.
"At the same time, it will give New Hampshire residents one more reason to avoid going to the Bay State and spending any of our hard-earned money there. It's just one more dumb idea in a series of them that reinforces why the New Hampshire Advantage is so important to protect."
Republican candidate for governor Kelly Ayotte of Nashua also condemned the speech.
"Instead of focusing on solving their dangerous billion-dollar illegal immigrant crisis, the Healey administration is planning ways to jack up their already high taxes and crack down on hardworking, law-abiding pickup truck owners," Ayotte said in a statement.
"Give me a break. Unfortunately, these are the out of touch policies that my opponents would bring to the Granite State. We can't afford to have their dangerous and expensive agendas in the corner office. I won't let them MASS up our great state. Together, we will win in November and keep this craziness south of our border."
Ayotte, a former U.S. senator, has made opposition to illegal immigration a major focus of her primary campaign for governor.
