The state’s highest court Thursday threw out a class action lawsuit filed by commuters who had objected to tolls collected on the Massachusetts Turnpike being used to pay for the nearly $25 billion Big Dig project.
All seven justices on the Supreme Judicial Court concluded that the financing scheme, which was heatedly opposed by thousands of commuters, was legal. In the lawsuit, the critics of the financing scheme wanted the state to refund more than $440 million commuters had paid in turnpike tolls, the SJC said.
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A long time ago, in an era where a man's word was enough, state officials stated that once the bonds used to build the Mass Pike the tolls would be removed. Then the ERA of big government, credit card mentality and deceptive government officials came into being. Except for Gov. Weld, no state official has tried to stop collecting tolls on the MA pike. To compound the problem escalated from a $2.8 billion retirement gift to Tip to the current estimate of cost to complete of over $24 billion. Revenues were needed to keep the Big Dig alive to keep the free loaders using the Big Dig to continue to freeload so nearest golden goose was the MA Pike. End of this segment of the story. Since the MBTA and commuter rail continue to bleed red ink, I predict that these organizations will pull s chair up to the table and proceed to feed on banquet paid for the toll payers of MA Pike.
This is so sad and outrageous. At what point does a selective taxation become illegal? When it is by town of residence? By street? What if Boston residents were paying for construction projects in Pittsfield?