Category Archives: Tolls

Recently, the O’Malley administration and the MD Transportation Authority have decided that, after 35-years, we are due for a toll increase on the Bay Bridge. Their answer was not an incremental adjustment to be absorbed over time, but rather an immediate 100% increase. This is to be followed the next year by an additional 60% bounce taking the toll from the current $2.50 all the way to $8.00. This meets a good definition for “excessive”.

While this may have a negligible impact on vacationers making their annual trek to Ocean City, it appears little thought has been given to the impact on commerce this will have for the mid and upper shore areas.

Consider that when Virginia built their Bridge-Tunnel, the toll was set high and has remained so from the beginning. Clearly, Virginia did not build it for commuters and North Hampton County remained relatively quiet when compared with the Virginia Beach/Norfolk metro area. It was a clear choice, and many would say a “good one”.

On the Maryland side, quite the opposite has been the case. A toll which amounts to $1.25 one way would surely encourage commerce and development on the Eastern Shore. It would insure a rapid expansion of the metro area by creating a readily available suburb for those willing to simply drive a few extra miles and pay a small toll for the privilege of living on the Eastern Shore. The rest of the shore would benefit from increased commercial traffic and day trips would become common. Maryland’s Eastern Shore would never be the same.

By maintaining a low toll, Maryland made the choice to potentially subsidize repairs to the bridge, as needed, beyond the revenue stream provided to insure the successful industrial, commercial, and residential development of the shore. Our prosperity has resulted in multiplied tax revenues for state coffers from that development far beyond that which would have been realized from any increased toll.

Now, after nearly four decades, we are going to raise the toll by nearly 300%. It looks like the proverbial “bait and switch” for the Eastern Shore. Queen Anne’s and Kent Counties will take it on the chin while the rest of us get bruised. At a time of economic pain and uncertainty, this tax increase should be on the back burner.

The time is now to weigh in with the Maryland Transportation Authority and the Governor’s Office as the “proposal” will become a reality very soon.

As it stands, we will pay for that toll in every loaf of bread, in every lost day tripper, and in just one more hurdle to tourism and commerce. For those commuters who sought a refuge on the shore, your discretionary income just took a big hit and many in Annapolis are choosing to look the other way.

By Delegate Mike McDermot

Pipkin says the ” The department has proposed a 300% toll increase, which I think is the new definition for highway robbery.”

FOX45 – Top Stories – Pipkin On Toll Hikes – Janice Park.

The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) announced they are looking at raising the tolls on the bridges leading into the Eastern Shore.  The proposal is to raise the  toll on the bridges going into Cecil County to $6 on the Hatem (Route 40) Bridge and the I-95, Tydings Bridge. Then on both bridges the toll  will go up to $8  by July 2013. On the lower end of the Shore, the plan is to raise the Bay Bridge Fee up to $5 this year and then $8 in 2013.

Those who currently use the commuter stickers on the windows of their vehicles and pay a reduced $10 per year to go over the Route 40 Bridge will now have to pay $36 per year and $1.50 per month, for an EZ Pass.

Why is the Eastern Shore of Maryland being forced to make up for the ICC inability to pay for itself?  If the MDTA  charges what it needs to make up for the cost of this controversial, 12 mile stretch of highway, no one would pay to travel on it.  So, once again, the rural areas of the State are being forced to subsidize the cost of an urban area’s extravagant transportation project.

The Eastern Shore counties do not have billion dollar mass transit systems that are in place on the Western Shore and are thus forced to travel by car for the majority of their travels. There is no money coming from the State to up keep the highways in the rural areas of the State, yet billions are spent on ICC.  The Eastern Shore is being asked to subsidize the large urban areas of the State and being made less attractive to tourism and for business by this ill conceived proposed bridge toll increase.

The traffic across the bridges has increased dramatically over the years bringing additional revenue into the State. We know that the inspections and repairs which should have been done on these bridges have not been done when and how they should have been, yet, the State sees fit to try to pay for new expensive unnecessary highways built in the urban areas of the State, through extortion of those who live or travel to the Eastern Shore.  When it comes to getting our share of the money collected we are once again short changed when over 80 % of the highway funds are sent to Baltimore City and our counties are left without enough to even pay for filling pot holes.   Doesn’t anyone in the Governor’s administration see the irony, or feel shame, that the toll increases are announced on the same day as is the job posting for the Governor’s search for a butler.

This continued War on Rural Maryland cannot be tolerated any longer. It is time to talk of starving the beast. The counties on the Shore, as well as other rural counties,  should seriously consider with holding those monies they can from the State, put them in escrow and tell the State to send us a bill for what we owe, then pay what we believe is due. Sound radical? It should.

The State continues to break its promises to the rural areas and to take, take, take, from the rural areas of the State. The Governor plays by no ascertainable set of rules other than that of  raw power.  His administration and the Democratic party rule Maryland as a non-benevolent tyranny of the majority.

The Governor and the Democrat majority treat the rural areas of the State as their property, to take from as they please and to be given to when their benevolence is so inclined, which is seldom, if ever.  The rural areas of the State can not sit by and watch as our way of life, our fiscal independence are taken away by those who give no consideration as to the consequences of their actions on those who live or do business on the Eastern Shore.

Delegate Michael D. Smigiel, Sr.

36 th District