After weeks of highly charged debate via email blasts and Facebook, dueling news conferences and pitches at public meetings, voters will have the final say today on whether tolls on the Crescent City Connection should be extended for 20 years. It will be the first time in its history that residents will weigh in on the funding source for...
After weeks of highly charged debate via email blasts and Facebook, dueling news conferences and pitches at public meetings, voters will have the final say today on whether tolls on the Crescent City Connection should be extended for 20 years. It will be the first time in its history that residents will weigh in on the funding source for the bridge, since tolls were instituted in 1989.
The fate of the Crescent City Connection tolls is now in the hands of voters in Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes. They will expire Dec.31, unless today's referendum is approved. Voters in Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes will find this question on the ballot: "Shall the toll be renewed and collected on the Crescent City Connection Bridge at the rate provided by law beginning on January 1, 2013, and ending on December 31, 2033, with the toll revenue dedicated solely for the following purposes along U.S. 90Z from Interstate 10 to U.S. 90: operations, maintenance, landscaping, grass cutting, trash pickup, functional and ornamental lighting, police functions, inspections, motorist assistance patrols, and capital projects on the bridges, approaches, and roadways and with further authorization for such tolls to be funded into revenue bonds for any one or more capital projects?"
The tolls, which cost 40 cents with a toll tag and $1 cash, generate $21 million annually for bridge operations. They are set to end Dec. 31, unless voters approve an extension.
Supporters say the tolls ensure a dedicated source of revenue for the nation's fifth busiest bridge in a time of shrinking state resources. Without tolls, maintenance, including large scale projects such as repainting the newest span, will have to compete with a $12 billion backlog of transportation projects from around the state. They also cite the state's prohibition on paying for lighting, which would be left up to struggling local governments. And drivers face the possibility of increased traffic gridlock.
Opponents deride the toll as a tax unfairly borne by West Bank residents. They also point to years of waste and mismanagement in the form of a $4 million insurance policy for the bridge that wasn't needed; a $3 million expansion of the bridge agency's administrative offices and illegal use of toll dollars for the Louisiana 1 bridge project. Opponents also say that the region's legislative delegation should fight for $6 million in license plate fees residents pay into a transportation trust fund and use that money to run the bridge.
The campaign has been likened to one of David versus Goliath. A grassroots effort of civic and business groups, led by state Rep. Pat Connick, R-Harvey, a CCC critic who has spent years examining bridge operations, have used word of mouth and radio ads to make their case. More than 200 businesses, mainly on the West Bank, have weighed in against the measure.
Bridging Progress, a political action committee of several business advocacy groups representing 3,000 businesses has mounted a $200,000 effort using newspaper, radio and television ads and direct mail. Bridging Progress, comprised of the Jefferson Business Council, Jefferson Chamber, Algiers Economic Development Foundation, Greater New Orleans Inc. and Plaquemines Association of Business and Industry, has enlisted elected officials and law enforcement chiefs in backing the referendum.
The polls are open through 8 p.m.
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