Republicans, Democrats see chance to override Ayotte veto of 10-year transportation plan

A week before Veto Day, leaders in both parties are hoping to overturn Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s veto of the Ten Year Transportation Improvement Plan. And some like the odds. 

“I think there’s a pretty good chance,” said Deputy House Speaker Steven Smith, a Charlestown Republican, in an interview Wednesday.

 “It’s the type of thing that’s normally pro forma,” he added of the 10-year plan. “‘Just do it’; and it passes on a voice vote.”

This year, the process was anything but. A two-year standoff between Ayotte and lawmakers over whether to raise tolls for out-of-state drivers came to a head when the Senate added the revenue measure to the 10-year plan and Ayotte vetoed it in July.

Ayotte has fiercely opposed the toll-hike proposal, which would double the turnpike toll rates for all drivers who don’t have a New Hampshire E-ZPass transponder, including those with an out-of-state transponder or those paying with cash. The proposal would also provide free New Hampshire E-ZPass transponders — typically about $7 — to anyone applying in the first 10 months.

“I do not support raising the tolls. I will continue to focus on making New Hampshire more affordable for all and a destination for tourists in the region,” Ayotte wrote in her veto message last month.

But as they prepare to vote on whether to overturn Ayotte’s more than 30 vetoes Aug. 19, lawmakers say reviving the 10-year plan is a particular priority.

“Making safety and infrastructure work political is just not right,” said House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson in an interview Wednesday. “We have to do this. We’ve got to get the work done.”

A tangled crisis

The tussle over toll rates comes in the midst of multiple financial challenges for New Hampshire’s interstates, roads, and bridges.

The state has two separate funds: the Turnpike System Fund, which pays for maintenance of specific sections of highway and interstates and is funded via tolls; and the Highway Fund, which pays for other projects across the state and is funded via a gas tax and vehicle registration fees. 

In recent years, inflation-driven leaps in infrastructure costs, coupled with $20 million in annual debt payments on the 2015 Interstate 93 expansion now due have blown a $400 million hole in the Highway Fund.

Those shortfalls have been exacerbated by a revenue problem, lawmakers in both parties say: New Hampshire tolls have not increased since 2007 and the gas tax has not been changed since 2014. Meanwhile, the Legislature removed tolls on the Everett Turnpike Authority on Exit 12 in 2014, Exit 11 in 2020, and Exit 10 in 2021 after local pushback.

The 10-year plan, approved every two years by the Executive Council, Legislature, and governor, sets the project priorities for the coming decade based on those revenues. The development of the next plan, covering 2027-2036, started last year. 

But the recent revenue shortage prompted the Executive Council to eliminate 34 projects funded by the Highway Fund and valued at $106 million, and delay another $199 million worth of projects, plus pause municipal grants used to fund smaller bridge repairs and other projects.

The toll hikes were meant to build the revenue to reverse some of those cuts and allow two improvements on I-93 in Concord and Manchester to proceed, lawmakers say. 

“I think in general, people want their roads fixed,” Smith said. “They want their bridges fixed, and they’re very happy when it’s funded by OPM: other people’s money.”

Additionally, although the tolls can pay only for turnpike projects, New Hampshire receives federal credits when it pays for turnpike projects with state funds, and those credits can be applied to non-turnpike projects, a major revenue boost for more rural areas in the state. 

Lower turnpike revenue means fewer turnpike projects and fewer federal credits to smaller towns, lawmakers say. 

Smith, a Charlestown resident, understands that frustration personally. His constituents often feel ignored by the state’s prioritization of projects along the more populous I-93 corridor; long-sought repairs of an aging bridge between Charlestown and Springfield, Vt., has taken years to approve. 

“Fifty-four percent of everybody in New Hampshire lives in Hillsborough and Rockingham counties,” Smith said. “So where do you think the money is going to go to?”

Tourism fears dismissed

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Both Republicans and Democrats have rejected Ayotte’s argument that raising toll prices for drivers without New Hampshire transponders — a move expected to affect out-of-state visitors — will hurt tourism.

Sen. Mark McConkey, a Freedom Republican, has two vantage points: He served as the chairman of the House Public Works and Highways Committee for years before being elected to the Senate, and he owns a gas station and convenience store in West Ossipee at the heart of the Lakes Region. 

The tourists flood in when gas prices are high and when they’re low, McConkey said. 

“I can tell you a couple cents one way or the other on that part of the surcharge doesn’t really make much of a difference,” he said in an interview, speaking on the gas tax.

The same logic applies to tolls, he said. “They’re going to continue to come whether they spend 40 cents more at a toll booth or not,” he said. 

At the helm of Public Works and Highways, which scrutinizes the 10-year plan, McConkey long believed the state needed to update its revenue sources. The fiscal crunch has required the state to raid the Highway Fund to pay for turnpike projects that are supposed to be self-funded, and McConkey wants to reverse that trend. 

“Our funding now has gotten to the point that we’re having to take money from the 10-year plan to fund engineering for the turnpike system,” he said. 

McConkey believes New Hampshire and all states will eventually switch to a “vehicle miles traveled” fee system that relies on odometer readings to fairly assess and tax each driver’s annual road impact, he said. 

But this year, McConkey saw a shorter-term compromise in the toll hikes for out-of-staters. McConkey and Sen. David Watters, a Dover Democrat, teamed up to gain support for the idea among their colleagues; it was ultimately the Senate that added the toll hikes to the 10-year plan.

“The revenue is so necessary to get that into the turnpike and to return the regional projects back into the 10-year plan,” he said.

Smith agreed that raising tolls on out-of-state residents is the most viable solution, one that neighboring states have done. New Hampshire turnpikes already charge slightly higher rates for non-New Hampshire drivers, though the proposed increase would widen that gap.

“There are options, and people need to consider those options if they don’t want to get to a point where we’re forced to raise the gas tax and the tolls for in-state residents,” he said.

A chance at override

No vote is certain on Veto Day, and to overturn Ayotte’s rejection will take a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate.

However, Smith said of any of the vetoes up for a vote next week, the 10-year plan has the most momentum for an override. 

The 10-year plan veto does not mean New Hampshire would stop all improvements; if the veto is sustained, the state will simply stay on the current 10-year plan passed in 2024 that extends to 2034. However, major projects, like the improvements to Exits 5 and 6 on I-293 in Manchester and the widening of I-93 in Concord, would be put on hold.

That includes the New Hampshire-Vermont bridge in Charlestown which New Hampshire owns and for which it is solely responsible to upgrade. 

Smith predicts a lawmaker will speak before the House next week and name the projects affected by Ayotte’s veto. “When they read that list off, I think you’re going to have geographical voting going on,” he said. “Like, ‘I’m from Nashua, and the Nashua projects won’t be added because this bill failed. So I’m going to vote to override.”

Simpson pointed to the bipartisan nature of the toll hike agreement to fund the projects. “All that needs to be paid for, and that’s why Democrats and Republicans came together and had a solution,” she said.

Something else bipartisan: Despite 19 years without change, neither party is interested in raising tolls for New Hampshire residents. “Right now we are not looking to raise prices on Granite Staters,” Simpson said, speaking for the Democratic caucus.

To McConkey, that kind of budgeting can last only so long. “I live roads and bridges. I live brick and mortar,” he said.

“Roads know no politics,” he added.