BOSTON (AP) - In a city made famous by a tea party, a group of
lawyers is arguing anew against taxation without representation.
Jan Schlichtmann, portrayed by actor John Travolta in the 1998
film, "A Civil Action," is leading a group suggesting
Massachusetts has been acting illegally by using its ability to
collect tolls along the 138-mile, east-west Massachusetts Turnpike
to pay debts incurred as part of the $15 billion "Big Dig"
project.
The infamously expensive project buried the Central Artery,
which runs through the city in a series of tunnels and is traveled
for free by North and South shore commuters.
Schlichtmann, former Romney administration legal counsel Daniel
Winslow and Washington tax attorney Donald Griswold are expected in
Middlesex Superior Court Monday as they seek to freeze the Pike's
assets to guarantee any settlement they might gain in court.
The verdict on that preliminary request will likely serve as a
proxy on the merits of the broader case, a class-action lawsuit
filed on behalf of three Turnpike users but which now has been
joined by over 1,600 people from 21 states who signed an online
petition.
Schlichtmann and the others argue the tolls equate to a user fee
that can only be used to maintain the roadway on which they were
incurred. In a somewhat analogous case in December 1773, colonial
protesters threw tea into Boston Harbor because they felt the
British were violating their constitutional right to be taxed only
by their own representatives.
The lawyers are seeking up to three years in toll rebates for
their plaintiffs, which could total $300 million.
It is a sum the state can hardly afford as it seeks to close a
$1.5 billion budget gap for its coming fiscal year and weighs a
19-cent gasoline tax increase to help address $2.2 billion in
long-term Pike debt and another $8 billion in debt at the
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. It provides suburban
Boston's subway, bus and commuter rail service.
"Because it's hard and challenging, what we cannot do is use
that as an excuse not to recognize the fundamental inequity,"
Schlichtmann said during an interview with The Associated Press.
"We want the practice stopped, and, going backwards, an
accounting of how much money was unconstitutionally diverted," he
said. He argues that 58 cents of every tolling dollar collected
pays Big Dig debts.
Former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, past national
president of the government watchdog agency Common Cause, would be
a trustee overseeing the distribution of any settlement. The
attorneys would be eligible for fees set by the judge.
Gov. Deval Patrick has argued for transportation equity,
proposing that moneys collected under the proposed gas tax increase
be spent on roads and bridges in the highway district in which they
have been collected. But he has not taken a position on applying
the same rule to Turnpike tolls even as he seeks to eliminate the
authority and fold its operations into the state's broader highway
bureaucracy.
His administration and the Turnpike Authority, whose board the
governor controls, declined comment because of the pending
litigation.