PROVIDENCE – Gov. Daniel J. McKee’s administration on Wednesday filed a formal notice that it is appealing a federal judge’s order to shut down the tolling of large commercial trucks on interstate highways in Rhode Island.
McKee had said during a WPRI-TV CBS 12 gubernatorial debate on Oct. 12 that the state would appeal the Sept. 21 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith, but the filing comes just days before the deadline for submitting the notice. The filing names Peter Alviti Jr., director of the R.I. Department of Transportation, as the main appellant.
A spokesperson for Gov. Daniel J. McKee did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither did a spokesperson for the DOT.
In his decision, Smith wrote that because the state failed to prove that large commercial trucks placed an outsized burden on the state’s roads and bridges, RhodeWorks, the 10-year infrastructure program meant to fix the state’s ailing roads and bridges, “was enacted with a discriminatory purpose, and is discriminatory in effect,” concluding the program violated the constitution’s commerce clause.
The 12 tolling gantries along several highways, including Interstates 95, 195 and 295, were shut off after Smith’s ruling was issued.
The tolling program, first instituted in 2016 by then-Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, had brought in approximately $101 million since the state began collecting trucker fees in 2018. In the most recent year, the program funneled $40 million into the department’s coffers, which are earmarked specifically for bridge and road repairs, according to the DOT.
The full budget for RhodeWorks is about $4.9 billion over 10 years, with approximately 10% coming from the toll program, according to the department’s website.
Virginia-based American Trucking Associations Inc. – which the Rhode Island Trucking Association is a member of – along with Cumberland Farms Inc., M&M Transport Services Inc. and New England Motor Freight Inc., first filed a lawsuit against RIDOT in 2018 to block the truck tolls.
In a statement on Wednesday, Rhode Island Trucking Association President Chris Maxwell called Smith’s decision “ironclad” and “thoughtfully written to withstand challenge and safeguard against future unconstitutional and discriminatory funding schemes.”
“By appealing, Governor McKee now takes custody, control and responsibility for Gina Raimondo’s policy that illegally stole millions from the small businesses he once championed,” Maxwell said.
“The question that now needs to be asked of Mr. McKee and all other elected officials and candidates running for office is very simple: Barring an unlikely overturn by appeal, do you support any revised form of tolling legislation – truck only or otherwise? Any answer but ‘no,’ including a refusal to answer, will tell you all you need to know about that person’s position on tolls,” he said.
Shortly after Smith’s ruling in September, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi expressed support for an appeal, which he said as an attorney is an action he recommends for all such adverse decisions “to preserve the state’s options on behalf of the taxpayers.”
He and Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio previously said the tolling of passenger cars will not take place “regardless of the outcome of this lawsuit.”
The legal matters surrounding the truck tolling program have also become a focal point in the gubernatorial campaign. McKee’s Republican challenger Ashley Kalus tweeted on Tuesday that truck tolls “harm the trucking industry, small businesses, & result in costs being passed along to consumers.”
The appeal, she said, “is nothing more than a sad attempt to fill the state’s coffers at the expense of taxpayers.”
