TOLLS Bridging a budget gap
Sunday, March 25, 2007
DON HAMILTON Columbain staff writer
Like it or not, tolls may be the answer to the whopping I-5 bridge project
Lots of scary words have attached themselves to the new bridge planned for the Columbia River.
The mere sound of "multibillion-dollar government project" makes even the most faithful of taxpayers wary.
But one word in particular excels in setting nerves on edge.
Tolls.
Tolls have been at the forefront of the discussion over how to cobble together enough public money to pay the $2 billion to $6 billion price tag the project may require. The Columbia River Crossing task force, which is guiding the process, says tolls are an active part of the discussions.
So, will we have to pay a toll to cross the new bridge?
Yeah, maybe.
"I don't see how it can be built without tolls," said Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard, a member of the task force. "Who's going to pay for all this? This is the best example of a user fee you can find."
And it's not like we haven't had them before.
Paying to cross the river has been common through the years, starting with the ferries that came before bridges. Of the nine Columbia River bridges crossing from Washington to Oregon, eight have resulted in tolls. All but two removed tolls after paying off the bonds issued to build the bridges.
The Interstate 5 Bridge actually had tolls twice: from 1917 when the first span opened until 1929, and again from 1960 to 1966 after the second span opened. And at least at one point, Clark County voters were practically begging for the chance to pay tolls. In 1913, county voters, by a 7-1 margin, approved $500,000 in bonds needed for the local share of the new bridge, with the bonds to be paid off by tolls.
Today's drivers still pay to cross the Bridge of the Gods and the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge, paying mostly for upkeep.
Neither of those rural crossings, though, are quite the same as collecting a few bucks every day, both ways, from tens of thousands of Clark County commuters who cross the bridge to get to work. Making it only slightly more palatable is the possibility of reductions through ticket books, electronic fare transponders and off-peak pricing. And the Interstate 205 Bridge will remain toll-free.
"There's always resistance to any tax or fee increase," said Clark County Commissioner Steve Stuart, a member of the Crossing task force. "Everybody's working with limited budgets, and no one wants to see more going to the government."
Pollard said he likes the idea of a toll because people who don't use the new bridge won't get stuck paying for it.
Any tolling system, he said, needs to be imaginative. He suggested a toll that offers unlimited all-day crossings, the better to help businesses that go back and forth.
"We've got the smarts to do that stuff," he said. "It has to be reasonable."
State Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, has doubts. He sees tolling as an effective tool for paying for new projects but would support a toll on a new Interstate 5 Bridge only if capacity increases.
"We paid for it once," he said, "and shouldn't be asked to pay for it again unless there's some significant increase in capacity and/or an alternate route."
In Stevenson, paying the $1 toll to cross the Bridge of the Gods isn't a big deal, said Steve Emond, manager of the Big River Grill in downtown Stevenson.
"You totally get used to it," he said. "I don't even think about it anymore."
He said he regularly buys a book of 15 or 30 bridge passes at the toll booth, cutting the cost to 75 cents per crossing. In addition, the restaurant offers to pay the bridge toll for customers coming from the campgrounds across the river in Cascade Locks.
Tolls are common in the East and the Midwest. The New Jersey Turnpike, the New York State Thruway, the Indiana Tollway and all the various toll cards, tollbooths and the like are a permanent part of the transportation landscape.
Not around here, though. Tolls may be far less common in the West, but they are becoming more common, with private tolls roads in California, Texas and other states.
Right now, the only tolls collected in the state of Washington -- road or bridge -- are for the Bridge of the Gods and the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge. That will change this summer when the second span opens on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The amount of the toll hasn't been set but is expected to be about $3 for a round trip, or $1.50 when paying with an electronic transponder.
State officials also plan a pilot project allowing solo drivers to pay a toll to get into the car pool lanes on state Highway 167 between Auburn and Renton.
What does that mean for a new bridge over the Columbia? Hard to say. But tolls are a prominent part of the discussion, with talk of hot lanes, transponders and toll booths. Nothing's been decided, but the project's draft environmental impact statement, which just got under way, will look at tolling as a finance mechanism, said Danielle Cogan, the Columbia River Crossing communications manager.
"Part of the DEIS process involves studying whether the alternatives are financially feasible," she said. "And that will include a discussion of tolling. How do you determine what a fair toll is? How do you determine whether a toll will decrease the number of people crossing on I-5?"
Tolls, she added, would be used only to repay bonds needed to build the bridge itself, not expenses related to other aspects of the project like mass transit, interchanges or river navigation improvements.
Drivers pay tolls to cross a few of the major bridges around the rest of the country, from as low as $1 for the Sunshine Skyway across Tampa Bay to $9 for New York's Verrazano Narrows Bridge and $12 for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
Tolling hasn't been a part of our transportation mind-set for a long time, however. Cogan said any tolls for the bridge would come with a public education campaign so motorists know what the tolls are for, how much they will be, why they're needed and how long they will be imposed.
Tolling, Cogan said, is a user fee, a system where those benefiting from a project bear a greater share of the burden of paying for it.
Clark County residents will know all about that because more Clark County residents than Oregon residents will probably wind up paying the toll.
Just look at the numbers, said Clark County Commissioner Steve Stuart, a member of the Columbia River Crossing task force. About 65,000 Clark County residents work in Oregon every day while about 25,000 Oregon residents cross the river to the north.
There's no obvious way to equalize those numbers, Stuart said, but "it's going to be a continued discussion."
Tolling is only one option for raising local money. Here's a quick look at a few other options that also could be considered.
Local gas tax: Legal, but never yet used by a county.
Sales tax: Local options maxed out, but a vote could allow more.
Local B&O tax: Vancouver phased it out in 2004 but can reimpose without a vote.
Property taxes. Complicated, temporary and need voter approval.
Special taxing district: Works like a local improvement district, with fees on affected property owners.
Transportation benefit district: Can levy sales taxes, property taxes and impact fees, but it is little used.
Stuart recently spoke with members of the Washington congressional delegation about the bridge and came away feeling its prospects at the federal level aren't bright. The two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, all told him the big federal deficit and the cost of the war in Iraq are making big-ticket transportation projects less feasible.
"We'd be very, very lucky to get even half," Stuart said. "Whatever we come up with is going to require local dollars, and inevitably that means tolls."
Tolls, he notes, can raise a lot of money quickly. Even at only a buck per car, a toll would raise $875,000 a week if 125,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day.
Pollard said the economic success of the region depends on the success of the new bridge project.
"We're all going to have to hold our noses and say, 'OK, I'll support this one.' We need to deal with this now and not put it off."
For whom the tolls bill
Here's a look at the tolls charged at a few prominent U.S. bridges.
Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, Chesapeake Bay: Cars $12.
George Washington Bridge, Hudson River: Cars $6, inbound to NYC only.
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay: Cars $5 (with a $1 boost under consideration).
Mackinac Bridge, Straits of Mackinac, Michigan's Upper Peninsula: Cars $5.
Sunshine Skyway, Tampa Bay: Cars $1.
Verrazano Narrows Bridge, New York Bay: Cars $9.
Note: Many toll operations offer discounts for ticket books, electronic payment like E-ZPass and FasTrak, and car pools.
Tolls, by the numbers
Virtually all major bridges in Washington were built with bonds paid off by tolls. In fact, when adjusted for inflation, the tolls paid in generations past were sometimes a lot more than what's paid today. Here's a look:
Toll Toll in
Bridge Opened when opened today's dollars
Lewis and Clark Bridge, Longview 1930 $1 $23.02
Tacoma Narrows Bridge, first span 1940 $1.10 $15.10
Fox Island Bridge 1954 75 cents $5.36
Interstate 5 Bridge, second span 1958 40 cents $2.60
Hood Canal Bridge 1961 $2.60 $16.71
Sam Hill Memorial Bridge, Maryhill 1962 $2 $12.73
Toll history of the nine Washington-Oregon highway bridges across the Columbia River
Eight of the nine had tolls at one time or another. Two still do, one never did and six removed them after paying off construction bonds. Here's their tolling history.
Lewis and Clark Bridge
Connects: Longview and Rainier, Ore.
Route: State Highway 433.
Opened: 1930.
Tolls: Removed 1965.
Hood River-White Salmon Bridge
Connects: White Salmon and Hood River, Ore.
Route: State Highway 14 to Interstate 84.
Opened: 1924.
Tolls: 75 cents per axle for general operations and debt service.
Sam Hill Memorial Bridge
Connects: Maryhill and Biggs Junction, Ore.
Route: U.S. 97.
Opened: 1962.
Tolls: Removed 1975.
Astoria-Megler Bridge
Connects: Megler and Astoria, Ore.
Route: U.S. 101.
Opened: 1966.
Tolls: Removed 1993.
Interstate 5 Bridge
Connects: Vancouver and Portland.
Route: Interstate 5.
Opened: First span 1917; second span 1958.
Tolls: Removed 1929; imposed again 1960 to 1966.
Interstate 205 Bridge
Connects: Vancouver and Portland.
Route: Interstate 205.
Opened: 1982.
Tolls: Never needed; the feds paid more than 90 percent of the cost.
Bridge of the Gods
Connects: Stevenson and Cascade Locks, Ore.
Route: State Highway 14 to Interstate 84.
Opened: 1926.
Tolls: $1 a car for bridge upkeep.
The Dalles Bridge
Connects: Dallesport and The Dalles, Ore.
Route: U.S. 197.
Opened: 1953.
Tolls: Removed 1974.
Umatilla Bridge
Connects: Plymouth and Umatilla, Ore.
Route: Interstate 82 and U.S. 395.
Opened: First span 1955; second span 1988.
Tolls: Removed 1974.
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