GOP senator: Toll increases are 'highway robbery'
State Sen. E.J. Pipkin says the Maryland Transportation Authority's plan to hike tolls "delivers a one-two punch" to commuters and travelers who are already feeling the pinch from gas prices hovering around $4 per gallon.
In a release this morning, Pipkin, an Eastern Shore Republican, said the toll increases "give the term 'highway robbery' a new meaning."
The fee for occasional travelers crossing the Bay Bridge, which has remained at $2.50 since 1975, would rise to $5 in October and to $8 in 2013. Commuters pay less.
Motorists who use the Baltimore Harbor crossings and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway also would pay more. Harbor tunnel tolls would rise from $2 now to $3 in October and $4 in 2013.
The four-year package of fee increases amounts to $210 million.
The Sun's Michael Dresser details the transportation authority's plan in an article this morning.
Republicans have also expressed fears that lawmakers will shepherd through an increase on the gasoline tax when they meet this fall for a special session on Congressional redistricting.
However, as much as lawmakers acknowledge a need to prop up the Transportation Trust Fund -- which is how the state maintains its roadways -- they also admit there might not be much of an appetite for a gas tax hike at a time when people are paying near-record amounts at the pump.
Comments
The only reason the transportation trust fund needs propping up is because the Governor and the Democrats in the General Assembly keep stealing from it to support their ridiculous spending.
The tolls are slightly different-- but the concerns SHOULD be a) what keeps the Governor from stealing that money, too, and b) that the tolls collected stay with the facilities they are collected from.
And $8 Bay Bridge toll, though, will ultimately kill what remains of any industry on the Eastern Shore. Unless Purdue and Mountaire plan to buy a fleet of barges and tugboats, they will not be able to ship poultry economically.
Posted by: Gunpowder Chronicle | May 13, 2011 2:03 PM
With all due respect to E.J. Pipkin, here's MY definition of highway robbery: someone on the Eastern Shore drives 40 miles one-way to work. I walk 15 minutes to work. I pay the same taxes for roads that they do. This is called SOCIALISM. Why shouldn't they pay tolls, and for the rest of their commute, too?
Posted by: Zaphod | May 13, 2011 3:28 PM
A 100% increase in October to be followed by another 60% increase in 2013, for a combined 312% increase in two short years. Are you kidding? Have expenses for the Bay Bridge increased by this amount? Or, are the users of this facility subsidizing highways and mass transit elsewhere in Maryland. I would like to know the cost to operate and maintain these facilities and have that compared to the present and projected fee structure. How is it fair to increase the Bay Bridge fee by $5.25 while the Harbor crossing increases by just $2. The folks in Baltimore have many options to the harbor crossing. What options do Eastern Shore residents have? Thanks, Annapolis. Thanks, O'Malley.
Posted by: chestertownie | May 13, 2011 4:29 PM
Thanks O'Malley...jerk!
Posted by: danno | May 15, 2011 8:25 AM
A Big Mac costs what $3 now, they used to be what 59 cents. Can you blame that on the democrats and O'Malley
Posted by: Karl Skaggs | May 16, 2011 7:00 AM
Quit crying chestertownie, danno, and Gunpowder Chronicle! Those of us who don't regularly use the Bay Bridge have been subsidizing, for decades, the commutes of people who travel from the Eastern Shore to DC. The tolls are a fraction of what people in NYC and Philly pay to cross the Hudson and Delaware Rivers each day. It costs $8 to cross the George Washington Bridge- and that bridge is 1/5 the length of the Bay Bridge!
Be happy that you don't live in Houston- where your choices are sitting in traffic for three hours a day or paying high tolls to use the express toll lanes.
Posted by: Rusty Shackleford | May 16, 2011 3:41 PM
Rusty: How about some evidence to back up your assertion that, "Those of us who don't regularly use the Bay Bridge have been subsidizing, for decades, the commutes of people who travel from the Eastern Shore to DC."
I'd be willing to bet you one free pass on the Bay Bridge that the tolls collected at that facility exceed the cost of operations, maintenance, and debt service. The great sucking sound you hear from the Transportation Trust Fund is related to the failure of Maryland mass transit to break even or for the users of the Intercounty Connector to pay the true cost of that project through appropriate tolls.
Rusty, while you're running the numbers, why don't you compare the gasoline tax collected from Eastern Shore gas stations against the amount of road construction dollars that flow back to Eastern Shore counties. Ill bet you'll find we're getting the short end of that stick, too.
Posted by: Chestertownie | May 17, 2011 7:56 AM
Charge vacationers and occasional users who cross the Bay Bridge higher toll prices.
Since there are few (high-end-jobs) in Queen Ann County due to the fact QAC has always been agricultural. QAC does not have the infrastructure and has never been deliberately designed to sustain six figured jobs.
Those who have commuter transponders should pay $1.00 because they are forced to cross the Bay Bridge for their livelihood.
Any increase for the transponder holders should be a tax deduction.
I have emailed the governor, and washington post.
Posted by: carol s miller | May 18, 2011 1:52 PM