After a very rocky roll-out of its proposed Gorham Connector, the Maine Turnpike Authority asked local officials for a “pause and reset” in a letter on Aug. 5.

This is welcome but no surprise – the proposed 5-mile turnpike expansion is a risky and expensive boondoggle that only saves four minutes for commuters while threatening habitats, small town character and the historic Smiling Hill Farm. Hundreds turned out against the plan at the lone public input session in March, followed by scores of critical op-eds, letters, testimonies and 12,000 signatories to our petition to stop the project.

The proposal faces myriad legal, environmental and financial challenges. It is unclear how the MTA would pay for the new turnpike without raising tolls on the main line of the highway – indeed, they’re planning a toll increase for 2025. It is clear that this turnpike expansion is going nowhere fast.

The mandate of the MTA has been simple since its inception in the 1940s: issue bonds to build and operate a toll highway from Kittery to Augusta. When that job was done and the bonds paid off – which they were by 1981 – the MTA’s charter dictated it would fold back into the state government and the highway would become toll-free.

That never happened. Instead, the Maine Turnpike Authority, a huge landowner that pays no taxes, but charges us to use its highways, wants us to hand over more of our land and expand. The MTA should stay in its lane and focus on running the turnpike’s main line while keeping tolls modest.

Instead, after pouring millions of our toll dollars into a lousy plan, the state is about to throw good money after bad. The Maine DOT announced its own study of “new and expanded” transit, sidewalk and trail opportunities that would open up “if the Gorham Connector is constructed.”

The idea that we need to build a highway for non-highway transportation to work is nonsensical.

Transit, trails and sidewalks generally don’t work on turnpikes. They work best when they are connected to the communities around them. A limited-access toll highway is the opposite of that. Maine DOT should spend that money actually fixing the ancient traffic lights, intersections and street designs that exacerbate delays in South Gorham and North Scarborough.

And, as part of its “reset,” the MTA promised to look at “other solutions/alignments, even if they were previously dismissed,” including non-turnpike options. We cannot trust the Maine Turnpike Authority to do that well. Why? Because the MTA runs turnpikes. Expecting the MTA to address complicated land use and congestion issues on local roads miles from their highway is like expecting the Department of Health to build sidewalks. The MTA put forth its best offer, not always in full transparency and good faith, and our communities found it fatally flawed. It’s time to move on from the Gorham Connector. It may be time to move on from the Maine Turnpike Authority, as well.

Decades ago, big city bosses and construction lobbyists popularized the idea of quasi-state highway authorities with huge powers like tax exemption, eminent domain and setting toll rates. The point was to evade public oversight and scrutiny of unpopular projects and tolls. The MTA has long struggled with exactly these issues. This is not a strong institution that should be given more responsibility.

If the MTA can’t take a back seat, maybe it should be subsumed to Maine DOT, as has been previously considered by Republican, Democratic and independent governors. The Legislature allowed the MTA to continue on the premise that it would contribute millions in toll profits to badly needed projects elsewhere in the state. The Turnpike Authority contributed just $1 million of $160 million in toll revenue last year, perhaps because it needs all our money to float doomed projects like the connector.

Let’s do right by the whole state, end the connector, and invest what we save where it’s most needed.