One More Time, Toll Bill to be Killed in Concord

A house panel on Wednesday voted unanimously to kill legislation that would have closed any of the ramp tolls in Merrimack, according to a story in Thursday's Nashua Telegraph.

But the news came as no surprise to local lawmakers.

Back in May, the bill to close the ramp tolls at Exit 12 stalled in the House Public Works and Highways Committee, when a vote was made to retain the bill that originated in the Senate at the hands of then Sen. President Peter Bragdon, R-Milford, until the fall session.

Bragdon said he is disappointed the bill was killed but glad it made it as far as it did. He said he plans to keep pushing for toll relief in Merrimack

During the spring, it was pretty clear that the bill, Senate Bill 3, would likely be scrapped in favor of taking up the issue of the Merrimack tolls during discussions surrounding the 10-year highway plan discussion.

David Campbell, D-Nashua, the chairman of the Public Works and Highways Committee told Patch in May that he still favors a commuter discount for people who travel through the tolls frequently.

“(Turnpike) Widening needs to be addressed, the tolls need to be addressed,” Campbell said in May. “We can't look at things one step at a time, we need to look at them all at once.”

He made similar comments to the Telegraph on Wednesday.

Bragdon's bill passed the Senate last spring, after being amended from closing the booths on all three ramps to only the booths with the least financial impact – the Exit 12 ramp. The bill made it farther through the legislative process that any of the many bills initiated by Merrimack State Reps over the years have made it.

It is expected the house will vote in line with this latest recommendation to kill SB 3 early on in the new legislative session in 2014.

Read the Telegraph's full story.