Published: June 15, 2009 09:20 pm      

Senate minority leader blasts tolls

CHARLESTON — Angered over a $15 million payment on a Dunbar bridge while West Virginia Turnpike tolls are about to rise, Senate Minority Leader Don Caruth staged a one-man protest Monday to an appropriations bill but wound up voting for it anyway.

Caruth took to the floor to again denounce an impending 60 percent toll increase on the turnpike while Gov. Joe Manchin is seeking approval of a huge chunk to pay for the Interstate 64 bridge, since the contractor is ahead of schedule.

“I hope this doesn’t sound like a broken record,” said Caruth, R-Mercer, a frequent and strong critic of the turnpike’s governing board, the West Virginia Parkways Authority.

Yet, he said, residents in southern West Virginia are getting “a raw deal” by having to pay a toll — period — to use the 88-mile highway.

Parkways members will meet June 25 at the Charleston Civic Center to presumably approve the toll increase, the first lasting one since 1981.

A short-lived hike was agreed upon in 2006, but ultimately shot down by a circuit judge in Kanawha County.

Caruth blasted “hypocrisy” that he said has funneled down from the governor to the Legislature, referring once more to the failure to use $10.5 million the turnpike drew down several years as part of the Interstate system but yet was spent elsewhere.

Once the toll increase is approved, the Republican leader said, it will take $12 to make a round trip the length of the road from Princeton to Charleston — and that will affect a child visiting the Capitol, the sick seeking medical attention or a student athlete traveling to an event.

“It’s ridiculous, and the ridiculous part is that it’s unnecessary,” Caruth said.

Meantime, another outspoken lawmaker, Delegate Clif Moore, D-McDowell, stood by his vow to block traffic at the Ghent plaza on the first day new fares are in force.

Moore said a number of disgruntled southern West Virginians have pledged to join him in the protest, among them a 70-year-old man on crutches.

“I’m not doing this for media attention,” Moore said.

Asked about the threatened park-in, turnpike Manager Greg Barr said State Police are assigned to enforce all laws on the toll road.

“The concern is that somebody could get hurt,” Barr said.

“Innocent citizens traveling the road could be in a rear-end collision because of a backup at the plaza. I don’t think that’s something anybody would want to be burdened with.”

Barr said state troopers would do “whatever is necessary” to enforce the law.

“It’s an interstate highway,” the manager said.

“If you’re blocking interstate commerce, you can’t just sit by and let him sit there as long as he wants.”

Caruth said the toll is discriminatory since no other interstate road in West Virginia imposes a toll and the effect is to treat southern residents as “second class citizens.”

“I’m never going to give up on this,” Caruth said, adding that if money can be found for the Dunbar bridge, the administration could find another means of repairing the turnpike other than by jacking up tolls.

“We have a governor who is absolutely adamant he’s not going to help us in southern West Virginia,” Caruth said.

Senators suspended their rules and, on identical 29-0 votes, shipped half a dozen appropriations bills Manchin outlined in his second special legislative session in as many weeks.

House Majority Leader Brent Boggs, D-Braxton, said his chamber decided against suspending rules, guaranteeing the session would likely last through Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, said he anticipated some criticism over the Dunbar span.

“Basically, this is just giving the Division of Highways spending authorization,” Tomblin said.

“It’s money the state owes, the DOH owes. We get something done ahead of time. We just need to authorize payment for the work that’s been done by the contractors.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com