Excessive penalties and poor customer service at the E-ZPass electronic toll collection system have put some Marylanders on the path to “toll bankruptcy,” Sen. Roger Manno told the Senate Finance Committee last week.
“Folks [are] exasperated because they’ve been caught in a system that is not working,” Manno said.
Broad enforcement powers enacted in 2013 to address toll violations have led to wage attachments, financial hardship and non-renewal of vehicle registrations at MVA, witnesses testified.
“The penalty structure that we set several years ago in the General Assembly was not intended to be punitive,” Manno said. “It was not intended to strip people of their rights and their assets.”
But the head of the Maryland Transportation Authority, which runs the toll facilities, told the senators that only a tiny percentage of drivers have been affected.
“I don’t want to minimize the pain that certain customers have gone through, but running the numbers only .001% wound up in a circumstance” like this, said Kevin Reigrut, MDTA’s new executive director. He said 99.3% of Maryland toll customers are paying their tolls without incident.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Daniel Menefee over at the Maryland Reporter