Live free or pay the Hampton tolls
By adamg - 6/29/09 - 8:54 am
While tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike won't go up (well, for now, anyway), you'll pay more to get to Maine starting next week: New Hampshire is increasing the Hampton tolls by 33%, allegedly to pay for construction of two full-speed transponder lanes there.
Comments
Didnt the Mass GOP invite a
Didnt the Mass GOP invite a bunch of NH lawmakers down to Boston for a rally a few months ago against adding border tolls in MA? So people from NH wont have to pay tolls to come to MA to get to their jobs, but people in MA will be paying to use NH to get to Maine. Way to go MA GOP, your great at representing the interests of NH.
A little fact bending?
Weren't the republicans trying to keep tolls off 93? This toll is on 95 and has been there for decades. What did the Dems do to stop this increase and the tolls in Maine?
Not that I really care about the republicans either - but fair is fair.
i think you reacted before you read
What fact did I state that was incorrect? And the Tolls that were increased in NH, not Maine as you stated. I think if you read this more carefully you would have understood my point was not being against the tolls, just the MA GOP looking like morons and now NH residents dont have to cough up more taxes to maintain that highway, it will be paid for by the users. But in MA, sales taxes were increased to subsidize users of the highways since the GOP valiantly rallied with NH lawmakers to prevent the tolls in MA.
It doesn't matter which highway (I never said it was the same) its that the MA GOP used NH lawmakers to press against adding tolls to a MA highway (that would mostly affect NH residents going to MA jobs) and then NH increases tolls on roads intended to hit MA residents going to Maine. Im all for tolls and gas taxes, I think its about time we all stop subsidizing car drivers so much in this country, but I was saying the MA GOP looks pretty stupid to have used NH lawmakers help stop tolls in MA only to do nothing when the tolls in NH were increased. Were NH lawmakers asking MA GOP members to rally against this increase.
It does seem unfair for NH
It does seem unfair for NH legislators to complain about our possible tolls, but then allow their own tolls to be raised. NH is not the tax haven its fans make it out to be, they get by because they cook the books and find other ways to tax people that are less obvious.
They aren't really "their" tolls though....
in the sense that the people that pay for those tolls are using that road to cut through from MA to Maine.
They also tend to be going
They also tend to be going to NH. Eastern NH is very heavily reliant on tourism and retail businessmen.
Of course smart Massholes will always jump off the exit before and just use Rt 1/1A
Anyways, it is hypocritical and I'm all for inward bound tolls on 93/95/495 to catch the live in NH, work in MA tax evaders. they provide ware and tear on our roads, yet found a way out of paying for it.
As some republicans would say, time to end the free lunch.
The man behind the tree is us
Don't tax you
Don't tax me
Tax that man behind the tree
Yup, time for tolls on Rt 3 and 93. Live free or die, indeed.
I dont mind paying tolls to pay for roads and the like...
but those tolls in NH cause traffic that make it unreasonable for me.
I dont like them and I dont like living free or dying.
I agree, if you tax me I tax
I agree, if you tax me I tax you. If the NH commuters do not like it screw them, our vacationers do not like paying tolls either.
oops brain furt
meant NH - but wrote Maine (was on vacation last week in ME and paid both the NH and ME tolls which indeed seems to be paid primarily by Mass residents going through NH and into ME based on the number of MA plates up there).
The GOP's position was we risk a toll war-we put one up on 93, then NH puts one up on the other side of the border, next thing you know we have tolls on 95, 91, 84 and we all become landlocked by tolls. I don't recall any conversation about fighting toll increases on existing tolls (since we almost had one ourselves) - just the attempt to stop new ones.
Personally I give the GOP credit on this one - at least temporarily they stopped tolls from going up (although that was probably unlikely anyway - but what the hell - might as well fight a battle you can win.)
Credit?
They convinced MA to unilaterally disarm, and as a result NH launched a preemptive toll strike against our undefended state.
Friendly Fire
Yes - but they prevented us from shooting ourselves in the foot - I don't want to pay a toll every time I drive up to Nashua to get my tax free goodies! Especially if they put a toll on both sides which means we would be under threat from the enemy AND subject to harm from friendly fire.
If I can save $62.50 on my new ultra plasma paper thin $1000 TV that I'll buy in Nashua - they can have the extra 50 cents in tolls when I drive up route 95 once a year to stock up on my duty free liquor at the neighborly state liquor store located right on the highway!
Those country folk are so nice - all fields and cows and low taxes and such. And you can see Cambridge from your porch.
Fifth Column
They prevented us from shooting you in the foot. However, if you are giving comfort and aid to the enemy, then you are part of a fifth column and deserve to be shot in the foot.
The MA GOP are suckers who got stabbed in the back by their pals in NH. Nobody respects a double agent.
The question of the effect of tolls on 3 and 93 has to consider what direction traffic goes in. Do more people who live in MA go to NH or vice versa? On a daily basis, I believe it's NH going to MA, so the net effect of tolls would be income transfer from NH to MA, not to mention discouraging turncoats from smuggling electronics across the border.
I'm a businessman
I don't take sides - I just weigh the price/value - and if it's the same product but cheaper on the other side of the border, after calculating the value of my time and gas - I'm probably buying in NH. As for smuggling - don't forget my likka!
I don't see it as a MA to NH v. a NH to MA thing. I consider it forced government efficiency. The less they have - the less they spend.
I'm going to Nashua this weekend - need anything? I'll take a 3.125% commission for the trip - I pass on half the savings.
The less they have
The more they borrow...
and the higher their rate is.
Give them a choice
Where are the people from MADD in all this ? I think we could give NH a real choice: either liquor stores or tolls.
Why not enact a federal law that says no tolls are permitted on highways that have exit ramps leading exclusively to any facility where liquor is sold ?
Then the cheapskates to the north would have to decide which they REALLY wanted more.
I'm all for federal laws
I'm all for federal laws where it makes sense.
But the Federalist in me thinks these issues are better handled by the states and on state levels.
The right thing to do is to escalate, and put inbound tolls on MA borders.
NH leeches off the MA economy quite a bit (Retail, Tourism, and border hopping workers), and rather then working with us, they'd like to tax us for their own political gain.
Cake has vs cake eaten.
Let's ding them until they live by their own all taxes are evil mantra, or wise up and give their people the reality about having to pay for public services.
How about....
inbound tolls into MA from 6am-10am, and outbound tolls from 2pm-7pm. And free the rest of the time.
Stop spending
The real solution here is for the new band of thieves in Concord to stop spending so recklessly that it would make a drunken sailor blush. As a NH resident (Portsmouth), I'll be taking Rte. 1 to 107 to miss the tolls on my (infrequent) trips south. It costs me twenty minutes or so, and probably more than two dollars worth of gas and wear and tear, but it's worth it to deny the filthy their lucre. It works going north also--get off at 107, take Rte. 1 north to 133.
The downside of this is that at popular drive times (i.e., go to/from work/Maine) this won't take 20 extra minutes, it'll take an hour. Which ongoing traffic mess will cause a stink that may cost at least some of the NH congresscrooks their jobs--a joyful prospect. Might even include some of the worst: those from Portsmouth. The thought makes me smile.
This is not speculation, it's exactly what happened a couple of years ago when they tried a one way toll for one summer; at the time, iirc, it was two bucks, one way. It was the governor's idea then, so the guilty were, sadly, spared.
Please consider this approach, you would be "saving" a little money, and you would be encouraging at least one small step on the long path back to fiscal sanity in NH. -wam