What price for lower tolls? (Baltimore Sun editorial)

The Baltimore Sun ^ | May 7, 2015 | The Baltimore Sun

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

hatever one might have thought about the Maryland Transportation Authority's decision to raise tolls four years ago, no one can say the two-phase proposal wasn't scrutinized from all angles or that the public wasn't given sufficient opportunity to ask questions or make comment. The same can't be said for the agency's decision to roll them back — in some cases below what they were before the last price increase.

That secrecy and abrupt decision-making should give Marylanders pause about what's going on at the agency that owns and manages some of the state's most important — and costly — transportation infrastructure, including Baltimore's harbor crossings, the Bay Bridge, the John F. Kennedy Highway and the Intercounty Connector. No details were made available to the public on Wednesday, but lo and behold, the MdTA board delivered the elaborate toll reduction plan, sign, sealed and delivered by Thursday morning.

Four years ago, MdTA officials pleaded for the toll increases and made the case that the agency wouldn't be able to meet its bond payments without them. It was strong medicine, particularly given the subsequent decision to raise the state's gas tax. But it was seen as fiscally responsible, especially given the massive borrowing required to build the ICC, a project greenlighted years earlier by then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. And whatever negative effects the higher tolls might have caused, they weren't obvious — MdTA revenue turned out higher than projected.

So what's changed?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Maryland “Freak State” PING!

[cyclotic]

The Democrat Party Daily Newsletter strikes again.

What morons.

Governor Hogan gets it, these guys have no concept of basic economics.

OK, I’ll try...again. When it costs less to get places, people tends to go places more...and spend more money because it cost less to get there. More trips, less money per trip, more revenue.

[lentulusgracchus]

In four years, the process went from open and aboveboard (raise tolls) to dark and anaerobic (lower tolls).

Their prejudice is obvious: They hate giving the taxpayer a break, on principle.

[VeniVidiVici]

Wow. A Democrat propaganda organ coming out against governent actually taking less of your money. I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked.

[hal ogen]

ALL politicians want to increase taxes on anything and everything. This must be some major f-up.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

In all fairness, I didn’t hear anything about toll reductions following the beginning of Hogan’s administration, apart from some chatter about eliminating the monthly E-Z Pass fee, until he announced the decrease.

[Bigg Red]

Their prejudice is obvious: They hate giving the taxpayer a break, on principle.

***
In addition, they will beat on anything done by the new governor because he is not a Rat.

[aimhigh]

Oregon may be liberal hole, but at least we don’t have any toll roads. It’s amazing what east coasters put up with.

[Senator Goldwater]

What’s changed, Baltimore Sun??

We have Governor Larry Hogan calling the shots in Annapolis, which ought to give those riotous savages in Baltimore some serious pause.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

If the Baltimore sun is horrified at the prospect of lower tolls, why don’t they see if their are any contract labor agreements or prevailing wage mandates for MdTA projects. Then they could advocate scrapping those things and saving money for the MdTA, but then that would be “anti-union.”

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

If the Baltimore Sun is horrified that the cap on gas tax increases has been reduced to 3 percent, why don’t they check for similar agreements and mandates on highway and transit projects and advocate for scrapping those, thus saving the DOT money. But then that would be mean-spirited, unfair and anti-”living wage” or some such, wouldn’t it?

(And yes, that would include David-Bacon for projects receiving federal funding.)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

DAVIS-BACON! ARRRRRRGH!!!

[Liz]

HERE'S A BIG CLUE: Four years ago, Maryland Transportation Authority's officials pleaded for the toll increases saying the govt agency wouldn't be able to meet its bond payments without them.

Govt "Authorities" are notorious funny money machines for insiders. L/E needs to examine this authority w/ a fine tooth comb.

<><> scrutinize the bonding company and which politicians rec'd a cut for signing off on the deal;

<><> could be phantom employees on the Authority payroll that skim off money for insiders;

<><> Authority budget items---PR, legal fees and accounting fees, building repairs are classic MO's insiders skim off money;

<><> are vendors/contractors on Authority budgets legit companies?

<><> banks holding bonding proceeds could also be culpable.

Investors who purchased tax-exempt bonds have standing to sue---b/c they were misled on the uses of bond proceeds.

The SEC, FBI, IRS would be interested in the misuse of tax-exempt bonding proceeds.

EMAIL: enforcement@SEC.gov

EMAIL: FBI TIPS PAGE ---https://tips.fbi.gov

[lentulusgracchus]

He’ll get the same treatment Sarah Palin got from the Rats in her Lege: special laws, anklebiters suing and following her around, prosecution under ‘Rat “sunshine” and “ethics” laws written to trap, enmesh, immobilize, and destroy Republican officeholders. “Embed or die”, as it were.

[Bigg Red]

You are right. Hogan, a Republican, follows 2 terms of Lil Marty OweMalley, a Rat who apparently hopes to take on Hitlery. The governor before King Martin the Malicious, was a Republican, Bob Erhlich, who had only one term.

Ehrlich, like Hogan was a RINO, but he probably could have done some good for the economy, thus paving the way for an actual conservative somewhere down the road. But the Rat-dominated state legislature boxed him in at every turn, and, of course, the local media, the Rat Ministry of Propaganda, slammed him every time they could.