Issue Position: Truck Tolls

Issue Position

Nationwide, the tolling of freeways has proven to be a tremendously successful way to generate a steady stream of revenue to support the upkeep and renewal of roadway/bridge infrastructure. However, Rhode Island is past the point of being able to toll freeways - federally we are only legally able to toll bridges. This makes for an extremely difficult situation if as a state we were to implement a statewide tolling plan. The tolls would need to be within and throughout our state - not just on the state borders as we see in other New England states. Furthermore, the burden of these tolls would have a devastating impact on our local economy in the sense that local companies that use trucks to move their product around the state would be paying a lot of extra money to do the same job they've been doing for years. This would make them less competitive, and be potentially devastating to certain businesses. Many businesses get their raw materials from the port of Quonset. If the tolls are put in place, they may decide to make their bulk purchases from out of state where the vendor will not have to drive over any "tolled bridges."

From the very beginning when the governor unleashed her plan in a very high profile press conference underneath one of the hundreds of crumbling bridges in RI she failed to properly represent what the actual details were about this plan. Whether by accident or not, those misrepresentations were major and did not even remotely resemble the plan her staff had put together. That makes me very concerned that what we're being told is in the plan may not actually be in the plan - and this is the same for "future versions" of the plan that may be released as well.

​The current proposals have been said by many to be constructed in a manner that will certainly curry favor with two groups that the governor has ties to; Wall Street, which has made her financially successful and helped her to get elected in 2010 and again 2014 and arguably have been strong beneficiaries of her pension investments while Treasurer. And the labor unions who would get a short-term infusion of jobs and with whom she has had a stressed relationship due to her pension reform plan of 2011. I don't believe that public money should be used - especially without the public consent, to help one political figure continue to "climb the ladder" which all indicators are that she is not finished with her planned ascent.

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