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April 29, 2009 Jay Finegan, 287-1445
Rep. Thomas Blocked in Effort to Roll Back Turnpike Toll Increases

AUGUSTA – State Rep. Doug Thomas called on his fellow legislators to vote down the budget for the Maine Turnpike Authority (MTA) and replace it with one that repeals the recent toll increases. The MTA’s $44 million budget later passed on a largely party line vote, 94-52.

Rep. Thomas (R-Ripley) said the new toll increases are excessive. In a floor speech, he cited the nearby Gardiner toll plaza, where the rates for a passenger vehicle jumped from 60 cents to $1.00. “That’s a 66 percent increase at a time when prices and wages are falling,” he said. “The Turnpike is going to argue that not all of their tolls went up that much, but many did, and the MTA ought to be ashamed of itself.”

Rep. Thomas is a member of the Legislature’s Transportation Committee, which has jurisdiction over the MTA. He said he has been bothered for the past several years by questionable spending by the Turnpike Authority’s management.

“A week or two ago, the Transportation Committee had a number of bills concerning the Turnpike,” he said in his floor speech. “The Turnpike had more paid staff there to support their position than I’ve ever seen at any public hearing in our committee in my five years here. One of the law firms they used to prepare testimony has offices in London. When I asked what it all was costing, I was told it didn’t matter.”

Rep. Thomas cited other examples of dubious MTA spending as he continued his criticism. “How long ago was it,” he said, “when we read in the newspaper that a $200 bottle of wine was being served at a Turnpike function?”

He reserved some of his sharpest criticism for the high toll prices that are forcing more traffic onto secondary roads. “Those roads will need to be widened and improved to handle the increased traffic,” he said. “This is traffic that should be on the Turnpike, but drivers are staying on secondary roads and bridges because the Turnpike Authority can’t get its spending under control. It’s putting a real strain on these other roads.”

Rep. Thomas concluded his floor speech with these words: “Let’s start today and send a message to the people of Maine that we can control spending, we can hold people who work for us accountable, and we can roll back this new tax.”

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