News comes to us from the Maine Turnpike Authority that their meeting in May with Maine's environmental agencies and the Army Corps of Engineers regarding the York Toll Plaza was just standard procedure, and not part of any specific site selection process. At the same time, the MTA has attempted to give York evidence that the option of keeping the toll plaza at its existing site is being legitimately reviewed, but is proving to be cost prohibitive.
We're not buying either of these deflections.
The steps now being taken with the MDEP, IF&W and Army Corps of Engineers are preparatory to one thing and one thing only - building a new toll plaza in the town of York. If these steps are preparatory to repairing the existing toll booth, as the citizens of York have made clear is their overwhelming preference, then the MTA should have no difficulty in providing to the public evidence to support this. In absence of any such evidence, they should own up to these meetings as being what they are - another step on the road to building a new toll plaza at a new site in York.
Meanwhile, having made clear that our preference is that the existing toll plaza be repaired, the MTA has slapped together an estimate for a total reconstruction of the plaza, and then attached a price tag to it of a whopping $70 million compared to the $40 million they claim will be the cost at a new location. In other words, the MTA is attempting to cast themselves in the role of diligent, cost-conscious public servants trying to save the good citizens of Maine $30 million from the crazy Luddites in York who stand in the way of progress. Nonsense, nonsense, and again, nonsense.
In putting together their wonderland estimate, the MTA has completely ignored the arguments of Think Again and the town of York, which have advocated with remarkable clarity that no evidence exists to show that this wholesale reconstruction or relocation is even required. To the contrary, in a time of rapidly evolving toll collection technology, combined with what appears to be an irreversible climb in the price of gas and a corresponding decline in overall traffic, all prudence points to a conservative approach; i.e., repair (that's "repair" and not "reconstruct") the existing site. All of which begs the question as to what the motives are of the MTA in the first place: serving the citizens of Maine or just creating projects for themselves?
So really, let's cut to the chase here. At some point, in negotiations that are supposed to be based upon good faith in the various parties' motives, the element of good faith itself needs to make an appearance. In the case of the Maine Turnpike Authority and its murky representations to the rightfully agitated citizens of York, that element of good faith has yet to arrive on the scene. From here, forgive us or not, but we do not believe it has ever existed.
If the citizens of this cash-strapped state really want to start saving some money they ought to start by abolishing the MTA, an organization that mutates from public to private depending upon what its motive is from one project to the next, and that exists only for the purpose of perpetuating projects from which it gets its funding. And, if our state representatives and senators really want to do the taxpayers a favor, they can start by ridding the state of superfluous, unresponsive agencies like the MTA that operate without any meaningful form of oversight from the citizens over whose lives they hold the power to destroy.
