Jul 17, 2008 4:57 pm US/Eastern
Big Dig's Big Debt Takes Toll On Drivers
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Massachusetts motorists needed the news like a hole in a tire on a stretch of the turnpike far from an exit. After a Boston Globe review of state documents revealed the cost of the Big Dig had spiraled by $7 billion in interest to $22 billion, some taxpaying toll payers on the Pike spoke as if they'd had the air let out of them. "I think we've spent enough already on the Big Dig," Sharon Gucciardo of Everett told WBZ's Ron Sanders at a rest area.
A WBZ Fast Track survey found 58 percent of those who responded oppose higher tolls on the turnpike. Opposition jumps to 72 percent on the question of raising tolls on other state highways as well. The prospect of raising the gas tax again, down the road, to help pay for the spiraling cost of the Big Dig finds less support than toll increases.
Standing at an island of pumps at the Natick rest area, Terri Murray of New Bedford said, "I do favor tolls over other options that we have as taxpayers." Ebon Elza, of Southbridge, said, "If they have to increase tolls to keep roads where they are, I think that's important."
While Worcester's DPW Commissioner says some road projects beyond the Big Dig's sphere will be delayed because of its big debt, several town managers in central Massachusetts say it's too soon to tell what the effects will be.
Jami Bartlett of Montague already feels acute effects of tolls and taxes. She drives two hours each way on the Pike to take her prematurely born daughter Ella to and from Children's Hospital every week. "The tolls are enough. It costs ten bucks every week just to go to Boston. So I don't feel really good about that." Colin Patterson of Easton said, "I think we have been raising tolls on the turnpike for many years now for too many projects...whether we go back to the feds on this one is debatable but I think burdening the taxpayers of Massachusetts with more taxes for a runaway project doesn't seem to be fair."
If the Big Dig's big debt won't be paid off for another 30 years, many people who'll be paying it off won't have any say because they haven't been born yet.
Read the full results from the Fast Track poll
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