ICC to cause increases in tolls statewide
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Commuters likely to face higher tolls

BALTIMORE -

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