Tolls: Much Ado About Nothing - Editorial
This week, we watched a select board member’s comments during a meeting go from a mere thinking-out-loud suggestion to headlines across the southeastern part of the state.
The hubbub, we think, is a bit over the top. Yes, select board vice chairman David Weeden did say he would advocate for tolls to be imposed at the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges. That wasn’t all he said, but it is the part that all the Boston news outlets picked up.
What Mr. Weeden also advocated for was exploring the possibility of exempting Cape Cod residents from said bridge tolls. Today’s technology, he said, likely has the capacity to create some sort of E-Zpass exclusion for residents. He went on to reason that the money gleaned from tourists visiting the Cape in the busy season could be injected back into our communities to improve infrastructure and water quality and bolster efforts to conserve and protect Cape Cod’s natural resources and environments.
Mr. Weeden’s comments during Monday’s Mashpee Select Board meeting were just that: comments, made as part of a discussion, and a pretty good idea to boot. Residential exclusions exist in other toll areas, such as East Boston. Is it really so crazy to suggest something similar could be implemented down here? We don’t think so, but many seem to disagree.
The scrutiny that Mr. Weeden’s comment is under feels unwarranted to us. We wrote an editorial on the idea of tolls at both bridges last August, when it was also in the news after state Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt made a noncommittal comment about the possibility. In that editorial, we talked about the possibility of resident exemptions; it would be complex, for sure, but not impossible. It made sense that this was news last August, considering Sec. Tibbits-Nutt’s high-profile role with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, but this situation—involving a local official’s discussion during a local board meeting—makes less sense to us. We don’t think there is really anything wrong with the ideas that Mr. Weeden floated—so what is all the drama about?
It is, however, interesting to see such a spotlight on Mashpee in the wake of Monday’s select board meeting. So many news outlets jumped on the comments, creating a storm of articles that each riffed on what Mr. Weeden said in one form or another, reviving the debate we thought died down last year.
Regardless, when asked about the idea on Wednesday, Governor Maura T. Healey was blunt: “I do not support tolls on the bridges.”
We want to say that means the issue has been put to bed, but we know better. We’re sure it will come up again sooner rather than later; we just hope there is less of an outburst next time a local official on Cape Cod speaks the word “tolls.”