Message from NH GOP 10-16-2007
“Toll Tax Increase Due to High Spending, Poor Management”
By Fergus Cullen, Chairman New Hampshire Republicans
Gov. John Lynch is raising toll taxes for the second time, and the current hike is just phase one of three planned increases coming down the pike.
I question whether the Lynch toll tax increases would be necessary now, or if they would have to be so large, if spending at the Department of Transportation had been better managed during the first three years of the Lynch administration, and during six years of the Shaheen administration before that.
The first Lynch toll tax increase came when Gov. Lynch cut the toll token discount from 50 percent to 30 percent with the introduction of E-ZPass two years ago. The Lynch administration plans future toll increases at Hampton (to $2) and all other tolls (to $1) by 2010, as well as phasing out the E-ZPass discount altogether.
According to the Legislative Budget Office and published reports, about half of the DOT highway fund (supported by the gas tax) is detoured to fund non-transportation items. For example, last week Councilor Ray Burton noticed a $546 line item for a rug for the Board of Tax and Land Appeals coming out of highway trust funds. That sort of siphoning has to stop.
I am also suggesting the latest Lynch toll tax increase was rushed and poorly thought out — evidenced by Councilor Beverly Hollingworth’s last-minute idea to double the proposed increase at the Hampton toll on Interstate 95.
Giving a government agency more money than it asks for is never a wise idea. In this case, Hollingworth’s proposal gave the DOT 50 percent more than it wanted, raising new toll revenues from $16 million to $24 million.
Commissioner Charles O’Leary called Councilor Hollingworth “brave” for suggesting the higher-than-requested increase. There you have it, folks: John Lynch and Beverly Hollingworth have the courage to raise taxes.
Fiscal conservatives know that it takes more courage to cut spending than it does to raise taxes, and that sort of real courage is utterly lacking in the Lynch administration.
Earlier this year, Gov. Lynch increased car registration fees (which also go to the DOT) and real estate transfer taxes, fueling a 17 percent rise in overall state spending. Gov. Lynch has repeatedly shown he has no philosophical opposition to higher spending and higher taxes. The Lynch toll tax increase is just the latest example.
I drive the Spaulding nearly every day. Like everyone who drives in the Seacoast, I’ve been stuck for an hour in northbound traffic trying to get over the General Sullivan bridge on a Friday night, delayed in the rush hour jam after the Rochester tolls, and baffled by the sometimes random morning backup after the Dover tolls heading south. Just as thousands of others do every day, I find myself griping the wheel tightly and having to focus intently while driving the dangerous undivided section between exits 12 and 15.
Aside from inconvenience, traffic congestion is limiting economic growth in the region. No one except radical anti-growth environmentalists argues that our transportation infrastructure doesn’t need expansion and maintenance.
User fees — tolls, gas taxes, and car registration fees — are the appropriate way to fund needed infrastructure work. But that doesn’t relieve Gov. Lynch of the responsibility to manage how our tax dollars are used better, so that he might need fewer of them.
Fergus Cullen
Chairman, New Hampshire Republican Party
10 Water Street
Concord, NH 03301
603-225-9341
fergus@nhgop.org