House Minority Leader Patricia Morgan (R-District 26 Coventry, Warwick, West Warwick) and the Rhode Island Republican caucus have renewed their calls to repeal RhodeWorks. Last month, the caucus released data that they say shows that the RhodeWorks toll law will likely lose money once it is operational. At the time, RIDOT Director Alviti appeared on various news outlets to refute the Caucus’ data.
The Providence Journal reported today that Director Alviti left out critical information in his statements. According to the report, RIDOT failed to include the costs to purchase and install the 28 gantries that will be needed at the 14 toll locations.
“This is an apparent attempt by RIDOT to mislead the public about the full costs of the toll program,” stated Representative Morgan. “The Director is now explaining that he didn’t add these costs because ‘it has not been finalized yet.’ Leaving out these details is a weak effort to discredit our numbers. In fact, if RIDOT is willing to forget that critical piece of the tolling costs, it taints everything they have told us, except the fact that they want tolls to be a perpetual source of money taken from the public.”
“When RIDOT refuted our data, we pointed out that their contract with the Austrian firm chosen to maintain the gantries confirmed our numbers. This newly revealed information confirms the data we reported on the costs to buy and install gantries,” continued Morgan.
“Based on GPS data research performed by the American Transportation Research Institute, the state will lose $7 million to $21 million because the RIDOT misled the public about truck counts. In every scenario, tolls are a bad deal for our state and we support repealing the toll law before further damage is done.”
Morgan joined WPRO’s Matt Allen to discuss the caucus’ call to get rid of the toll program. Listen Below:
