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February 6, 2008

Toll debate pits commuters in Newport, Bristol

PROVIDENCE -- Legislators from the areas that would be affected by a change in the toll policies on the Mount Hope and Pell bridges made their cases before the House Finance Committee today, arguing for conflicting bills that could significantly alter their constituents’ cost of getting to work.

The intense interest in tolls was prompted by a study by the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority saying that it will probably run a $223-million budget deficit over the next 20 years as its maintenance costs far outstrip its revenue, and that it needs to do something -- perhaps a toll increase -- to make up the difference.

The authority maintains two bridges, both from the mainland to Aquidneck Island: the Pell Bridge, from Jamestown to Newport, and the Mount Hope Bridge, from Bristol to Portsmouth. The Pell Bridge has tolls, which pay for the upkeep of both that bridge and the Mount Hope Bridge, which is free.

The study suggested several scenarios, including one where the Pell Bridge cash toll for cars would rise to $3 from $2 and a $1 toll would be charged at the Mount Hope Bridge.

The authority held a series of hearings last month in the areas served by both bridges, where testimony made two things clear:

• The people who depend on the Pell Bridge don’t want that toll to increase, especially to help pay for repairs to the Mount Hope Bridge.

• The people who use the Mount Hope Bridge don’t want to pay tolls and would prefer an alternative plan.

-- Journal staff writer Bruce Landis

Rep. Raymond Gallison, D-Bristol, representing the users of the Mount Hope Bridge, pushed a bill that would maintain the status quo by amending state law with a brief sentence banning tolls on that bridge. Unless something changes, that would leave the authority to continue paying to maintain the Mount Hope Bridge from the Pell Bridge tolls, while the users of the Mount Hope Bridge continued to pay no tolls.

Gallison argued that the authority said in 1998 that the Pell Bridge tolls could support both bridges, that rebuilding the toll booths that once stood at the north end of Mount Hope Bridge would cause a safety hazard, and that imposing tolls on Mount Hope Bridge users would amount to "a disproportionate tax" on them. He also said that tolls would threaten the area’s important defense industry and might cause the Defense Department to take away Naval Station Newport in some future round of base-closings.

Gallison’s solutions: either keep the status quo, with the Mount Hope Bridge continuing to be supported with Pell Bridge tolls, or divert about $4 million per year from the state gasoline tax. The 30-cent gasoline tax revenue is already fully committed to other state programs, notably at the state Department of Transportation and the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.

Rep. Bruce Long, R-Jamestown, represented the Pell Bridge users. His bill would restrict the use of Pell Bridge toll revenue to maintaining only that bridge. That would reflect his constituents’ desires by taking back the tolls they pay that are now maintaining the Mount Hope Bridge.

How would the Mount Hope Bridge be maintained?

"It’s got to be covered through the state budget, or its own tolls," Long said.

The state’s other bridges are maintained mostly with federal highway aid funneled through the state Department of Transportation. That’s how the state is paying for its current construction program, including the relocation of Route 195 in Providence, the new Washington Bridge, and the new Sakonnet River Bridge it plans to build.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:20 PM | Permalink

February 6, 2008

Toll debate pits commuters in Newport, Bristol

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