Citizen commission should take close look at toll figures

Randy Boss

Special to the Gateway

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Citizen’s Advisory Committee met last Thursday to start its annual analysis of income (toll revenue) against expenses (debt service and operation costs) in order to advise the state Department of Transportation on what the toll charges will need to be next year on the Narrows bridge.

Unfortunately, the CAC’s first concern was — you guessed it — how high do we need to increase the tolls? This is not new!

The CAC started this toll-review process the same way last year, but, after it reviewed irrefutable evidence of the waste and abuse of toll revenue by DOT, the Legislature changed the state law that previously allowed the DOT to use toll revenue for “any” cost and rewrote the law to specify that toll revenue could only be used to “Pay required costs that contribute directly to the ... tolled facility.”

That specific change will save you and me millions of dollars in unauthorized expenditures, but there is still much to be done.

Last year, the CAC determined there was no need for a toll increase but the state Transportation Commission, the entity charged with setting toll on the bridge, had long and hard debates anyway and was determined to increase tolls as a “safety precaution” against the possible downturn in traffic and revenue due to the falling economy.

With more than $16 million in the toll reserve account, the Transportation Commission finally decided to postpone any decision (effectively freezing tolls) and took a reasoned wait-and-see approach to any toll increase.

A wise decision in that toll revenue will actually exceed projections by more than $2 million in this collection period.

The CAC should not be in an automatic toll increase mode when one is not warranted. With $18 million as a buffer and toll collections on the rise, there is no need to increase tolls automatically next year.

The CAC should advise the Transportation Commission to take another deep breath and again and wait to see if any toll increase will be actually required next year.

Since the bridge opened for traffic in July 2007, the DOT has collected $90 million in tolls. More than $80 million of that money has come out of the pockets of the people who live on the Gig Harbor side of the bridge. That’s $80 million that has not been spent with our local merchants, and this is on top of the national financial collapse of the economy.

The DOT should not be sitting on $18 million while it increases toll rates, just to add to that reserve at a time when we can least afford any increase.

Randy Boss of Gig Harbor has closely followed the toll-setting process since the new Narrows bridge opened in July 2007. He can be reached by e-mail at randyboss@comcast.net.