Entire NH turnpike system should convert to all-electronic tolls: Letters
Entire NH turnpike system should convert to all-electronic tolls
May 15 — To the Editor:
I was pleased to read your May 13 article headlined: "All-electronic tolls coming to Spaulding Turnpike." The replacement of the toll plazas with all electronic tolling was long overdue. Our neighboring states (with the exception of Maine) tore down their toll plazas several years ago.
I introduced a bill this year in the New Hampshire House to mandate all-electronic tolling on the whole length of our turnpike system by Jan. 1, 2035 (13 years from now.) My bill HB 1211 had two excellent co-sponsors: Rep. Josh Yokela, a Republican from Epping, and Chuck Grassie, a Democrat from Rochester. As Seacoast residents and regular users of the Spaulding and Blue Star Turnpikes, we have witnessed the traffic jams created by the existing toll plazas in Rochester, Dover and Hampton. Those traffic jams may seem like a minor inconvenience, but those plazas also kill. Drivers are constantly colliding with the toll booths, often with fatal results, and there are many other accidents while drivers are approaching or leaving the toll plazas. The recent fatal accident at the Dover Point plaza was officially blamed on
distracted driving caused by using cellphones while driving, but the disruption of the traffic flow caused by the toll plaza was also a major factor.
The reason we placed the deadline so far in the future was because the Hampton and Hooksett toll plazas are not in the current "Ten Year Highway Plan," which will run (assuming it gets passed and signed in to law a few weeks from now) from July 2022 through June 2032. That plan only addresses the two Spaulding toll plazas, along with the Bedford plaza on the Everett Turnpike. Those three plazas will all be gone by
2024, according to the plan.
Our hope was that the Hampton and Hooksett tolls could be addressed in a future edition of the plan. The House Public Works committee unanimously killed our bill on the rather dubious grounds that it would be wasteful to tear down "perfectly good toll plazas" before they wore out. Those plazas were both rebuilt in the 2010s, and they won't start falling apart for several decades. I know it will be a while before the
state can get around to dealing with the Hampton and Hooksett tolls, but
I still say that the safety and traffic-flow advantages of all-electronic tolling are reason enough to remove those two plazas sooner rather later, even if the plazas are still in good condition when we replace them. The costs would be relatively low in the large scheme of things: about $10 million per plaza give or take a few million.
Rep. Timothy Horrigan
Durham
Doctor who performed abortions lists concerns with 'disturbing' Alito draft
May 13 — To the Editor:
As an OB/GYN who performed abortions for almost 40 years, Justice Alito’s first draft concerning Roe v. Wade is deeply disturbing. He and four fellow justices are ready to overturn Roe and abandon the precedent of the right to privacy. The loss of protection for abortion access and privacy will be devastating for women and society.
Without Roe, many states will create or tighten severe restrictions on access to abortion, even in the case of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother. They may consider IUD’s and morning after pills as abortifacients, destruction of frozen embryos will be illegal. Will the Republicans pass a federal law banning all abortions without any exceptions?
For millennia abortions were performed primarily by women for women, following customs and common law. When restrictions have been imposed, abortions do not decrease and deaths go up. Those with means have little trouble obtaining a termination but the poor will die. We know there will be illegal procedures offered, women will be at the mercy of disreputable providers. Hospitals will deal with the horrible outcomes of the abortions. Doctors, nurses, clergy and others will be punished for helping these desperate women. Organized crime will get involved.
The protection of privacy has been responsible for LGBTQ rights, marital equality, contraception, decriminalization of non-heterosexual relations. The loss of all these hard-earned rights would be a disgrace. We are slipping into a society controlled by a minority, imposing their moral and religious beliefs on all of us.
We are having our democracy and freedoms slowly chipped away. Do not be afraid to speak out, protest, spread the word and vote.
Wayne Goldner, MD
Bedford
Sununu must veto anti-voter bill SB418
May 13 — To the Editor:
I’m no stranger to being caught in the middle of New Hampshire’s value for the democratic process, and politically motivated attempts to impose unnecessary barriers on voters and complicate the electoral process. In 2017, I spoke with Gov. Chris Sununu about HB1264, a bill that would disenfranchise college students recently moved to New Hampshire like myself. In that conversation, Gov. Sununu shook my hand and promised me he would stand up for voters and veto the bill. Just a few months later, he broke that promise, signing HB1264 into law.
It’s deja-vu as I once again watch another unnecessary anti-voter bill (this time SB418) head to the governor's desk.
SB418 concerns me, and others, as the 2017 version did. It’s the latest in unnecessary, costly, anti-voter legislation that needlessly complicates things for voters, with major unwanted side effects for New Hampshire. We should all be concerned by any proposal to increase barriers to voting. In particular SB418 targets active duty military voters voting absentee from overseas. It will also place an expensive, unnecessary burden on New Hampshire taxpayers, and it directly threatens our first-in-the-nation primary election by convoluting our election process and slowing down results.
Once again, our governor has a simple choice: he can stand up for voters, election access, and the first-in-the-nation primary and veto this bill; or he can needlessly threaten one of New Hampshire’s most sacred institutions by signing SB418 into law. He cannot have it both ways. When this bill reaches his desk, he must choose to veto it, protecting New Hampshire voters and elections.
Ben Kremer
Newmarket
Democrats must take reproductive choice fight to the states
May 15 — To the Editor:
A Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade will leave it up to each state to regulate abortion. There are about 75 million women of childbearing age in this country. In 2018, some 620,000 documented abortions were performed. Of these, 1.5% were attributable to rape or incest. Assuming half the states prohibit abortion, 310,000 women who might otherwise choose to terminate a pregnancy would be impacted, representing less than .5% percent of all childbearing females.
Despite the small numbers, for any woman wanting an abortion in a state that prohibits it overturning Roe will be a life-altering circumstance. No woman should be forced to have a baby when she is not emotionally or financially ready and no woman should be coerced to go to term because of rape or incest. Moreover, for the rest of us restricting abortion is bad economics especially now as the nation’s prime working age labor force shrinks due to a chronic declining birthrate over the past 30 years and a broken immigration policy. Our economy is better off when women have access to job training and education to participate in the workforce. We need every able-minded individual to grow our economy in the face of the China threat.
For over 50 years, Democrats failed to codify Row or preserve a favorably disposed Supreme Court. Without filibuster reform and with a conservative Supreme Court majority likely to prevail for a generation, action at the federal level is doubtful. Consequently, it’s time for Democrats to jettison abortion from the national stage in favor of addressing it more aggressively state-by-state. Going forward, the issue will put GOP states on the defensive every election cycle, having them defend horrific instances of sexual abuse and rape, teenage maternal mortality, and infant health issues. (Not to mention the first case of a GOP governor’s teenage daughter going off to Mexico on a private jet for an abortion.) The GOP has hidden behind Roe for years, giving it cover to talk "extreme right." With Roe gone, under pressure from local Democrats, the GOP will likely be pushed state-by-state to "walk left."
Meanwhile, Democrats in Washington should use the issue to refocus their political capital on broader social and economic issues that would positively benefit more women, children, and families. Ten million children still live in poverty in this country. Annually, about 1.2 million kids drop out of high school. Childcare, pre-K schooling and healthcare are broadly supported policies across partisan lines, benefiting all families while turbocharging our economic prospects in a competitive world.
The goal is to preserve choice — that has not changed. What needs to change are the tactics to getting it done while pressing ahead on other critical family issues that, with Republicans “missing in action," only Democrats have the capacity to address.
James T. Lalos
Portsmouth