Merger ahead; Link Mass Turnpike debt relief to reform.

COLUMN: IN OUR OPINION

With the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority facing crushing debt payments and begging for help on Beacon Hill, the Legislature should seize the opportunity to push much-needed fiscal reforms at the agency.

Those who believed the turnpike would fold its tent once the roadway was paid for must have been spending too much time in, say, Kentucky, where state law required that tolls be lifted once the toll roads were paid for in 2006. More than two decades after the Mass Pike construction bonds were retired, the toll road lingers as a patronage haven and source of cash for purposes vaguely related, at best, to its 135 miles of pavement.

Most notably, tolls were tapped to help finance the $15 billion Big Dig, which, along with shortsighted fiscal policies, now threatens the authority's solvency. Faced with the need to refinance some $800 million in debt, the ostensibly independent authority now hopes to use the commonwealth's favorable credit rating to soften the blow of looming lump-sum payments on its ill-advised "swaptions" financing deal.

Since the financial hit ultimately would fall on taxpayers and motorists, it would be counterproductive at this point for the Legislature to say no to the plan. Nonetheless, state Treasurer Timothy Cahill's warning that putting taxpayers at risk of paying the authority's debt without improving the agency's financial management "borders on fiscal recklessness" is on target.

Although Executive Director Alan LeBovidge has begun to trim excess personnel and make the operation of the turnpike more efficient and fiscally responsible, much stronger action is required. The state should begin with strict fiscal reforms, preparatory to nothing less than a full merger of the state's highway bureaucracies.

On the policymaking level, that already has begun. Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen chairs the boards of both the turnpike and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and oversees MassHighway and the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

On the fiscal level, passage of a refinancing deal - in any form - should shatter any pretence that the turnpike is financially independent of the state.

All that remains is to formalize the merger, folding the redundant turnpike administration and operations into MassHighway.

Such a merger is long overdue. Indeed, the Legislature's approval of the toll road in the 1950s hinged on assurances the authority would be dissolved when the construction bonds were retired. Good government advocates have urged the move for years, and the concept has been embraced by both Gov. Deval L. Patrick and former Gov. Mitt Romney.

Significant savings could be realized through unified administration and more efficient use of resources for clearing and maintaining all the state's roads. The turnpike authority's current, self-made financial crisis underscores the folly of prolonging its existence. Lawmakers should help the authority with its finances, subject to tough fiscal reforms, then get to work on the merger promised a half-century ago.

NAME: CENTRAL ARTERY/THIRD HARBOR TUNNEL