Former Mass. Attorney General L. Scott Harshbarger joins Pike toll suit

The Boston Herald reports:

Former Attorney General L. Scott Harshbarger, who has joined a legal dream team suing to recover as much as $450 million for beleaguered Pike tollpayers, says he can’t be held responsible for not fighting plans to make Pike drivers pay for the Big Dig more than a decade ago.

Harshbarger, long a champion of government accountability, told the Herald he isn’t to blame for not halting the 1997 plan to have Turnpike tolls diverted to pay for the massive Big Dig tab.

“You make the calls as you see them at the time, but you’re not wedded to them 11 years later,” Harshbarger said.

He was attorney general from 1991 to 1999. He was later president of Common Cause, a nonprofit government watchdog group. Along with attorney Jan Schlichtmann of “A Civil Action” fame, he is suing to recover up to $450 million in tolls they say was collected illegally to fund the Big Dig. About 1,700 Bay State residents have signed on to the class-action suit. But Harshbarger’s role has caught the attention of Beacon Hill lawmakers.

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