DOT insiders rap study to sack turnpike authority

AUGUSTA – Present and past transportation commissioners lined up Monday to make a case against a proposal that could lead to the breakup of the Maine Turnpike Authority.

“It looks like former DOT commissioners have a club,” Rep. Terrence McKenney, R-Cumberland, quipped while the former and present highway bosses were taking turns at the podium before the Transportation Committee.

Rep. Glenys Lovett, R-Scarborough, wants that legislative panel to probe issues such as toll equity and bonding authority in its study on whether the turnpike’s overseeing agency should be dissolved.

Lovett acknowledged that the abolition of the turnpike authority has been studied in the past but said the proposal has never been finally resolved.

“I would like to see this put to bed once and for all,” said Lovett, adding that no long-range transportation plan can be done without knowing whether the turnpike’s duties should be absorbed by the Department of Transportation.

Lovett has been skeptical of the authority since it proposed building a 22-lane toll plaza at the Saco-Scarborough line, a proposal that was extremely unpopular in her district. The plan was dropped in 1999, prompting Lovett to drop an earlier proposal to do away with the authority. Only Lovett and a co-sponsor, Rep. Stavros Mendros, R-Lewiston, spoke in favor of the bill Monday. The committee, which includes two members who are turnpike toll collectors, expressed little if any interest in it.

“Personally, I think the Department of Transportation has its hands full … and also that the turnpike is doing a very good job,” said Rep. Rosaire Paradis Jr., D-Frenchville.

Opponents said any action to dissolve the turnpike authority would have serious, negative financial implications. The authority was created 60 years ago, six years before the toll highway was opened.

The 106-mile, York-to-Augusta road is in the midst of a major widening project along its southern leg.

George Campbell of Portland, Maine transportation commissioner during the early 1980s, told the committee that the turnpike generates a proportionately larger share of money from out-of-state traffic than the fuel tax, a key source of transportation money.

When a similar proposal was advanced nearly 20 years ago, lawmakers discovered that half of the turnpike fees come from out-of-state vehicles, while only 20 percent of fuel tax money is paid by non-Maine-registered vehicles, Campbell said.

Campbell also noted that eliminating the revenue bonding authority of the turnpike would shift a major financial burden to Maine’s general obligation debts.

Eliminating tolls would result in higher per-gallon fuel taxes, he said.

Another former DOT chief, Roger Mallar, warned, “Taking tolls away would have an absolutely horrendous effect on the highway program.”

Gov. Angus King’s present transportation commissioner, John Melrose, acknowledged that savings could result from a merger of the DOT and turnpike in some areas.

The two agencies have in fact discussed ways they can combine some of their activities to cut overall costs and maximize financing opportunities, Melrose said.

Together, “we can do projects neither one alone could accomplish,” said Melrose.