By Connie Leinbach
In the next weeks the N.C. Legislature will hammer out a two-year budget that may or may not include a toll on the Hatteras ferry and an increase on the currently tolled routes.
The state House has unveiled its full budget proposal that differs from the spending plan already approved by the Senate but leaves out adding tolls to the state’s free ferry routes or increasing current fares.
The Senate approved a budget that doubles the rates on the Ocracoke-Swan Quarter and Cedar Island routes and Ocracoke Express passenger ferry, while adding tolls to the Hatteras-Ocracoke, Currituck-Knotts Island, and two other routes.
There has been considerable pushback from Outer Banks and inland legislators to the Senate budget’s ferry toll proposal, which drew vocal opposition from local government leaders and business owners who have passed resolutions and written letters to state lawmakers.
During their May meeting, the Hyde County commissioners approved their own resolution against ferry tolls and added their names to a resolution signed by seven other counties opposing the enactment of tolls on free ferry routes and additional charges on those routes already tolled.
Both documents were sent to the General Assembly, said Hyde County Manager Kris Cahoon Noble during the commissioners’ monthly meeting.
According to the fiscal document attached to the budget bill, the tolls would raise $6.4 million in each of the next two fiscal years that would be allocated to the Ferry Capital Fund for vessel replacements.
“The estimated fiscal impact of establishing tolls on previously untolled routes and increasing existing toll rates is based on the bill’s toll rates and ridership data from the Ferry Division’s monthly traffic report,” the fiscal note says.
However, Bob Chestnut, chair of the Ocracoke Civic & Business Association, said at the April meeting that there’s no estimate as to how much it would cost to implement toll collection at both ends of the Hatteras route.
Both chambers were expected back in Raleigh after the Memorial Day recess, and while the total spend is about the same at about $30 billion, the budgets differ as to how to allocate the funds.
Because of these differences, a conference committee will be selected to work out the differences. Those members have not yet been selected.
Noble encouraged islanders to contact Ocracoke representatives.
“Timing is of the essence,” she said at the OCBA meeting on May 20. “We need to create a groundswell of opposition.”
She suggested the following: “Call the Senator/Representative and leave a message if no answer, letting them know who you are, your position, and a return phone number. Follow up with an email stating your position and send these individually, not in a group email. Focus on the Senate and the House. Put your opposition on record.”
The Hyde resolution says the Senate has proposed a fee of $20 per vehicle less than 20 feet and $40 for a vehicle greater than 20 feet for the Hatteras ferry. It also includes doubling the toll on the Ocracoke-Swan Quarter route from the current $15 fee to $30.
Hyde’s resolution points out several reasons that a toll on the Hatteras route would be unfair, particularly that the Hatteras to Ocracoke ferry route is currently the only toll-free route for residents, vendors and visitors to access Ocracoke Island.
“The imposition of tolls on routes that are currently free (and the increase in currently tolled routes) will constitute an unfair taxation burden and economic hardship on the residents and businesses of eastern North Carolina,” the resolution says.
Moreover, it points out that General Statute §136-89.197 states that, vis-à-vis toll routes, “The Department shall maintain an existing, alternate, comparable nontoll route corresponding to each Turnpike Project constructed pursuant to this Article. (2002-133, s. 1.)”
This ensures that all people can access a non-tolled route to their travel destination.
“Ocracoke is unique in the fact that there is no other way to access the island except by ferry and the Hatteras to Ocracoke ferry is now the only free option to access Ocracoke Island,” the resolution says. “Every person deserves a free route to travel home.”
See below for a list of the transportation committee members and their contact information.
More information on each of the legislators can be found online at http://www.ncleg.net.
