ATA President Chris Spear Calls Rhode Island Truck-Only Toll 'Extortion'
American Trucking Associations’ new president, Chris Spear, jumped headfirst into the conflict between the Rhode Island Trucking Association and Gov. Gina Raimondo on Aug. 24. Spear labeled RhodeWorks, Raimondo’s trucks-only tolls plan, “extortion” in a meeting in Riverside, Rhode Island, with members of the state association and other business people opposed to the plan.
"We don't know if this program is legal, but it is bad policy and an extortion of our industry,” Spear said.
Rhode Island Trucking Association President Christopher Maxwell echoed Spear's comments about RhodeWorks, which would require commercial trucks — but not other vehicles — to pay $3 at each of 14 toll booths around the state up to a maximum of $20 per day.
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"Our elected leaders are ruling without our consent," Maxwell said. "Unlike similar issues in the past that they have been allowed to bury, truck-tolling unjustly targets a powerful industry that stands outside the fray of the Rhode Island's cronyism and special interests. While this does not bode well for our state's [economic] recovery, it should give our citizens some much-needed hope."
Rhode Island representatives Patricia Morgan and Daniel Reilly, both Republicans, have questioned the constitutionality of RhodeWorks, which Raimondo, a Democrat, signed on Feb. 15 after it passed both chambers of the Ocean State’s Legislature. Charles St. Martin, a spokesman for Rhode Island’s Department of Transportation, had predicted then that the Federal Highway Administration would give RhodeWorks the go-ahead in the spring, but with fall barely three weeks away, that still hasn’t happened.
“The governor’s focus is keeping people safe, putting people back to work and rebuilding our infrastructure in a way that doesn’t just put the burden on every Rhode Island family,” said Marie Aberger, Raimondo’s spokeswoman. “RhodeWorks does exactly that. Of course the trucking association has a vested interest in continuing to attack RhodeWorks: their own bottom line. It’s no surprise they still prefer to keep getting a free ride in Rhode Island, while causing most of the damage to our roads and bridges — even though they already pay tolls in nearly every other state from Maryland to Maine.”
