BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Tolls on Maryland tunnels and bridges could increase more than 70 percent over the next five years to help pay for building the InterCounty Connector in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, and the new express toll lanes on Interstate 95 in Baltimore and Harford counties, a fiscal analyst told lawmakers Monday.

Based on information the Maryland Transportation Authority sent to lawmakers, average tolls throughout the system are expected to go up $1.20 (48 percent) as early as 2010 and 85 cents (23 percent) two years later. This would push one-way tolls at the Susquehanna River bridge on I-95 past $8 and at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to more than $4. Tolls were last raised in 2001.

“No decisions have been made at this time,” Deputy Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley said.

Swaim-Staley said the department is actively assessing the revenue structures, and also looking at ways to reduce its construction costs.

“Tolls are probably going to be raised periodically,” said Ron Freeland, executive director of the authority, which manages the state’s toll facilities.

But fiscal analyst Jaclyn Dixon said the authority definitely has to raise tolls to finance the $2.8 billion in bonds that must be floated in the next five years to pay for the $2.2 billion ICC construction and $1 billion construction of the toll lanes.

Both projects will collect their own tolls to help pay the bonds to build them, as will federal highway dollars.

There will be a tenfold increase in the agency’s debt over the next five years, Dixon said in her analysis. The authority “could decrease strains [on its debt] by increasing tolls sooner rather than later,” including reducing commuter discounts.

“It’s actually cheaper now to cross the Bay Bridge than it was when it opened in 1952,” Dixon said, adjusting for inflation.

Del. Murray Levy, vice chairman of the transportation appropriations subcommittee, said there is no question that tolls must be raised to pay for the increased debt.

Commuters with booklets or E-Z Passes get substantial discounts, paying only 20 percent of the $2 rate on the Baltimore tunnels, for instance, and 16 percent at the Susquehanna Bridge. “We have the most generous discounts in the nation,” Freeland said.

Sen. E.J. Pipkin, R-Upper Shore, has proposed a bill to make the Transportation Authority get legislative approval for any tolls increases. The O’Malley administration opposes the move, because the bond rating agencies prefer that the Transportation Authority exercise independent authority.

“The bond rating agencies considered that one of its greatest strength,” Freeland.

llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com

Comments from Examiner Readers

1:55 PM MST on Wed., Feb. 27, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

mehere said:
Cancel the ICC now--it's still not too late. Call or email your legislators and the governor and let them know that the ICC would be a huge waste of money at a time when we can't afford it. Go to mdelect.net to see who your legislators are and how to contact them. Stop the ICC!

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6:06 PM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Examiner Reader said:
Jeez, the governors of Maryland and New Jersey must sleep in the same bed - they come up with the same horrible ideas. Pretty soon I won't be able to afford to visit my family in NJ unless I take out a loan first.

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3:52 PM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Examiner Reader said:
�No decisions have been made at this time,� Deputy Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley said. In other words folks, you've been had. You've bought (or been sold) into a pig in a poke. If you don't want your tolls to skyrocket, contact your delegates and state Senators and tell them to support the bill to defund the ICC, HB 1471

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2:18 PM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Examiner Reader said:
The EZ-Pass discount depends on the plan. You can probably kiss these discounts goodbye unless the ICC is stopped. ________________ Standard Plan: Customers pay the full-fare toll; funds do not expire Baltimore Region Commuter Plan (Fort McHenry Tunnel, Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, Francis Scott Key Bridge, John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway and Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge): 50 trips for $20, valid for 60 days cost of two trips deducted at Kennedy Highway and Hatem Bridge facilities) Bay Bridge Commuter Plan: 25 trips for $25, valid for 60 days Nice Bridge Commuter Plan: 25 trips for $15, valid for 60 days Business Accounts: Business accounts are available to E-ZPass Maryland customers. Business account customers have two plan options: 1. Operators of two-axle vehicles, with more than five transponders on one account, may enroll in standard and/or commuter plans 2. Operators of vehicles with three or more axles may qualify for a post-usage discount

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1:59 PM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Examiner Reader said:
How about putting the toll $$ towards transit?

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12:51 PM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Source said:
Yeah, City resident, where is the surplus? Where is the access to the tolls?

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12:45 PM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Examiner Reader said:
city resident, since you are so smart, why don't you explain why a surplus is not good? I guess huge debt is also not so bad either. You are obviously just an Owemally lover trying to misled the blind dem sheep.

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10:22 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Source said:
When the media hears of this, someone will quick pay the BAstards, thats my 2 cents. As a matter of a fact, it should only need 2 cents.

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9:59 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Examiner Reader said:
freeland is a liar. regular ez-pass customers do NOT receive a discount. another yo'malley woaterboy carrying mouthpiece. The writer of this does not know what he is talking about. I use the Hrbor Tunnel and the fot Mchenry tunnel everyday with E_Z pass and pay 40 cents per trip not 2 bucks

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9:37 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Winner said:
Well, someone better pay the BA if you want a good outcome. Someone better pay the toll for the traffic to be at a reasonable pace. I am tired of the high gas prices, traffic, congestion, speeders, road rage, illiterate who intercepted my road. Get it her done. Fiscal responsibility, special session every weekend until these pubs understand a deficit or this highway robbery.

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8:24 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

City Resident said:
they should put tollbooths on 495, since those are the people that will be using this "connector" can you imagine the traffic on 495 if they put tollbooths there? HA!

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8:17 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

BA said:
I think they meant that the surplus would've been better used on this than raising tolls (taxes) and burning the surplus elsewhere. Its not like this self imposed project just came up yesterday and they all of a sudden must find funding for it.

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8:05 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

City Resident said:
why do people think a government surplus is a "good thing" its not like a checking account or something. take an economics class.

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8:01 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Mark said:
If O'Malley hadn't peed away (is that better Examiner ?) the surplus Governor Bob left this and many other things could have been covered without increasing the burden on the taxpayer.

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7:58 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

City Resident said:
welcome to the Examiner 6:41. every article has comments about liberals or democrats. i can see being angry about enormous state employee salaries, but raising tolls to build new roads??? isnt that what tolls are supposed to be for? lol.

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7:29 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Examiner Reader said:
will the everyday middle class hard working man/woman ever see anything from Gov O'Shady tax hike.

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6:41 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Examiner Reader said:
Wow. What a bunch of whiners. Get over it. Costs increase and that's life. Deal with it. Everything is not always about incompetence or mismanagement. What planet do you all come from?

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6:34 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Examiner Reader said:
The black hole of state goverment sucks some more life from the Maryland ecomony. If the ICC was so important, why was it not funded in the $1.7B in tax increase? Maryland voters are been scammed again. They deserve it.

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5:58 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Conscious Reader said:
Is this the new form of population control? Charge people so much money, that they will leave Maryland or not even bother to visit?

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5:08 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Examiner Reader said:
Hey O'Malley Why not just come and take all my money and get it over with fast. This slowly bleeding me dry is torture.

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3:09 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Commuters likely to face higher tolls"

Examiner Reader said:
freeland is a liar. regular ez-pass customers do NOT receive a discount. another yo'malley woaterboy carrying mouthpiece.

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