Patrick to sign budget; Toll hike scrapped
Published: June 29, 2009
Updated: June 29, 2009
BOSTON—The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority has eliminated a planned toll hike hours before Gov. Deval Patrick signs a state budget that includes a 25 percent hike in the state sales tax.
The Turnpike board met Monday morning and approved a budget that relies on $100 million from the sales tax increase rather than a planned toll hike set to take effect July 1.
Patrick is scheduled to sign the $27.4 billion spending plan Monday afternoon in his Statehouse office.
The budget makes steep cuts to service and slashes aid to cities and towns.
It also includes the biggest broad-based tax increase in two decades - a measure that would increase the state sales tax from 5 percent to 6.25 percent.
The tax hike will also help the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority close a $160 million budget gap.
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Reader Reactions
Tell you what, RI can have him! He keeps on increasing the size of the government and the programs without considering that the people of the state have to foot the bill.
He is going to go ahead and lets the toll hike be scrapped—and let the entire state pay for a roadway and transportation system that only 20 percent of the state uses or has access to. No? Then where is the southcoast rail project headed? The Boston crowd has let it slip that they think it is too expensive and they’re going to scrap it!
He is as bad as the governor of Rhode Island is—just in a different way.
I wish we had a Governer like Deval Patrick. He really is the greatest. Hopefully someday he will let R.I. become a part of MA.
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