Transpo Big Wheel Promises Draconian Change

In a story also covered prominently by the Boston Herald, the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance rebuked the  comments made by Governor Maura Healey’s Secretary of Transportation, Monica Tibbits-Nutt, during a speech on April 10th before the WalkMassachsuetts special interest group. 

Secretary Tibbits-Nutt made a string of negative comments toward motorists, vowed to raise taxes and fees, and went as far as to describe her authority to use policy as a “weapon.” To watch the entire speech, please click here.

“Secretary Tibbits-Nutt’s comments are simply reprehensible. She describes her targets that will affect ordinary people, like people who commute from border states, people who get packages delivered, people who take Uber and Lyft rides, and even people who pay payroll taxes. Decisions to raise taxes, fees, or adding tolling should be made by our elected legislature, not announced by an...unelected bureaucrat before a special interest advocacy organization," said Paul Diego Craney, spokesperson for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, in a press release. 

"The people she’s villainizing are just ordinary people trying to go about their everyday lives. Our state government should make life easier for people, not harder. She brags about having the New York playbook and she’s going through their items. The Secretary enthusiastically touches on [an increase] to the vehicle excise tax, and who knows what else is in store from her New York playbook. The Secretary even went as far as throwing judgement on the people of Milton for choosing to preserve their town, and people who drive trucks and SUVs,” Craney continued.

Below is a transcript of some of the Secretary’s comments provided by Mass Fiscal.

-38:22 REPRESENTING THE ADMINISTRATION ON TAX AND SPENDING POLICIES

“I represent the administration. I represent the Department of Transportation. Other times, people don’t always believe what I have to say especially when it comes to money…”

-37:35 MAKING PEOPLE FEEL BAD

“I will not spend one day trying to keep my job. I just won’t. Because otherwise it makes it very very hard to actually do the job correctly. You’re going to make tons of enemies. You’re going to have to say things people want to hear because its going to make them feel really bad or its going to put them in a position in which they have no choice but to now do something with what you just said…”

-36:26 USE POLICY AS A WEAPON

“I’ll 100% use it as a weapon… Once I say it, its now a policy. I have now weighed in…”

-25:39 TOLLING AT THE BORDER, RAISING TAXES AND FEES

This one (committee) is actually different because we aren’t censoring this. I’m going to talk about tolling, I’m going to talk about charging TNCs more, I’m going to be talking about potentially charging more for package delivers, charging more for payroll taxes, basically going after everyone who has money. And when I’m talking tolling, I’m talking at the borders. I’m not talking about within Massachusetts… But we are going after all the people who should be giving us money to make our transportation better…”

-22:18 MILTON CONTROVERSY

“There are all these communities doing it, we’re taking some of them to court. But some of them are doing it because they know it’s the right thing to do. I’m not shouting out a particular community, but I’ve been real about this. We will 100% see you…”

-6:30 F-150 AND SUVS

Question: “Is there anything the DOT can do to help protect us a little bit from these or disincentive people from buying them?

Answer: “The problem is we can’t. They are already so expensive. I mean that’s just true. We can’t price them enough that’s going to stop the type of person who wants to buy that car. And I’m 100% passing judgement on someone who wants to drive basically an 18-wheeler as their personal car. We have no control over it. We can’t. There’s nothing we can do. At least legally, there is nothing we can do about it. Honestly, a lot of that goes to FHWA, really going at the Federal Government regulations. They are the only, they are the ones that dictate everything we can do at the register of motor vehicles. It is. It’s horrible. And the thing is, you know, right now, we are talking about the weight of EV cars, and especially larger EVs, SUVs. So this is something for us to think, we are concerned about.”

-4:54 EXCISE TAX

Question: “How about touching the excise tax?

Answer: “Oh, I’m going after that. That’s already on my list. You don’t have to worry about that… That might do it (reference to make trucks and SUVs cost prohibitive). That’s not a bad idea, I did not agree to that, but just said its not a bad idea. I’ll actually look to see if any other states have done it.”

Question: “Also, think about, how local, look at what NY is doing right now…?”

Answer: “Do you think I don’t have their entire playbook? I do. I am just going to down through their list…”

“It’s frightening to think an official so high up in the Healey administration is bragging to a special interest advocacy group about the economic pain she wants to inflict on the very people who she’s supposed to work for,”  Craney added.

According to the Boston Herald report, New Hampshire Governor Sununu also expressed strong disappointment in Tibbits-Nutt's concept of placing tolls and people entering the Bay State.

“She’s clearly demonstrated she does not have the best interests of all the residents of Massachusetts at heart,” concluded Craney.

[MassPort image]