The other day a prominent business executive used the Maine turnpike – something he rarely does, because he normally helicopters between his home and Kennebunkport, where he occasionally serves as a foreign policy adviser.

Unused to the hurly burly of highway traffic and confused by the proliferation of toll booths (trucks, coins, receipts, Canadian currency, passes, officials only) he pulled into the first booth he spotted, only to find, once trapped in the slot, that his chosen sluiceway was neither manned nor womaned. Nor was he able to find any receptacle that would accept coins or bills, or credit cards, or debit cards – or even a note to the governor promising payment. Worse yet, he was trapped by following traffic – members of which soon began to evidence displeasure at the delay.

He was assured that other booth attendants could not accept his offering. What to do?

So he exercised the decision-making that has made him a legend in the hedge fund market. Reasoning that the Maine Turnpike Authority would probably praise him for helping, in his small way, to ease the plight of the tourists blocked behind him – many of whom might be on their way to help the economy of Maine – he made a spot decision.

He drove on.

Consequently, a few days later he was surprised when he found in his mailbox a letter signed by the Violation Clerk of the E-Z Pass Violation Processing Center, which not only failed to thank him for his small contribution to turnpike efficiency, but also which curtly informed him that he had incurred a penalty of $50, as well as an administrative fee of $20. He assumed that the $50 hit was to create fear in the criminal class, but, since Maine people are thrifty, he could imagine no justification for the $20 administration fee.

His letter of violation was accompanied by two pages of legalese instructing him that failure to pay by a deadline would incur an additional $100 penalty. By now, he was beginning to perspire. What if the postal service had failed him or what if he had trashed the letter – a common occurrence in these days of overwhelming junk mail? The resulting total would have put him well on his way to garaging his car and relying completely on his helicopter.

So, trained in management assessment, he undertook a short study on two aspects of tolls on the turnpike: 1. to examine the problem of scofflaws and, 2. to evaluate administration cost efficiency.

His study noted in passing that other turnpikes charged as little as $5 for a similar offense – and none had gone broke. It also noted a recent computer toll system installed by the Maine turnpike management – only to be quickly abandoned – at roughly the same cost as the recently requested highway bonds. Using this as a comparative efficiency measure, he came to the conclusion that it would be better to encourage toll jumpers. They were much more profitable than regular tolls.

Regarding administration, he noted that the commonly accepted business cost for an individually addressed, first-class letter was $3.69 – indicating that approximately $15 of the turnpike penalty represented profit. It was suggested that these profits might have been previously used to bulk up the dinner fund for $180 bottles of wine for top turnpike management, but he disregarded the rumor.

Instead, he recommended that the new $12 million Maine Turnpike Authoriy headquarters be built with profits from E-Z Pass violations.

Rodney Quinn, who lives in Gorham, is a freelance writer and former Maine secretary of state.

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