One Berkshire County legislator is in favor of a plan to keep tolls on the western part of the Massachusetts Turnpike even after the highway is paid off in 2017.

State Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack says the plan to continue collecting tolls from the New York state line to Route 128 in eastern Massachusetts would help pay for maintenance on that stretch of highway. Lenox State Representative Smitty Pignatelli has two turnpike exits in his district. He calls the interstate the best road in Massachusetts.

“It takes money to maintain a road that is 145 miles long,” Pignatelli says. “People have to come to realize, it’s a user road , you pay for it when you use it. I use it an awful lot. I have no problem paying a toll when the maintenance is so nice.”.

Tolls at the six western-most exits were reinstated in 2013 after Governor William Weld abolished them in the mid 1990’s.