R.I. Taxpayers Urges Speaker Mattiello To Stand Firm Against Tolls

WEST WARWICK, RI – R.I. Taxpayers is urging Speaker Nicholas Mattiello to continue to stand firm against Governor Gina Raimondo’s wasteful, destructive toll proposal in the face of a remarkably coincidental bridge closure in his home city.

“No one disputes that the state’s roads and bridges need repair,” notes R.I. Taxpayers Communications Director Monique Chartier.  “The question is how to pay for it.”

“Rather than taking the sensible route of funding repairs out of the budget, the Raimondo administration is rushing to pass a $1.1 billion destructive, highly wasteful toll and bond plan,” says R.I. Taxpayers President Larry Girouard.  “Tolls are exactly the wrong thing for Rhode Island. They would add to the state’s high cost of living.  They would hoist a huge neon sign over the state that we have no desire to improve our business climate.  And if a toll, however narrowly targeted, is passed, it’s only a matter of time before it would spread, like an invasive weed, to all cars and trucks in Rhode Island.”

While the Raimondo administration has been forced to revise its toll plan three times in the last three weeks, reflecting the hurried, last minute nature of the proposal, and reliable information about it has been scarce from the beginning, it is estimated that an incredible fifty percent of the $1.1 billion price tag would be squandered on interest and toll gantries.  Speaker Mattiello had refused to green light the proposal in the House, citing in part this lack of information.  On Tuesday, the same day that the state Senate approved the toll plan, RIDOT closed a heavily traveled overpass in Cranston, the home city of Speaker Mattiello, citing safety issues.

“It’s impossible that the timing of this bridge closure was a coincidence,” emphasizes Chartier.  “The Raimondo administration had failed to sell their toll plan on its merits.  So it appears that they resorted to trying to muscle Speaker Mattiello.  Kudos to him for standing his ground and not being pushed around.  This tactic only confirms that he is right to put the brakes on this highly ill-advised stampede over the tolling cliff.”

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