Last week's nullification of the election extending tolls on the Crescent City Connection means drivers are streaming freely through the West Bank toll booths for now, but a host of questions remains about the future of the bridge. The New Orleans Regional Planning Commission must sort out several issues, including how to pay for lighting on the bridge and...
Last week's nullification of the election extending tolls on the Crescent City Connection means drivers are streaming freely through the West Bank toll booths for now, but a host of questions remains about the future of the bridge.
The New Orleans Regional Planning Commission must sort out several issues, including how to pay for lighting on the bridge and what should be done about the ferries that run near it. "At this point, we're looking to the Regional Planning Commission for their guidance," state Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Sherri LeBas said. The commission meets Tuesday.
The Crescent City Connection photographed from Algiers.
Issues involving the CCC would have fallen to the commission regardless of the election's results, but a new wrinkle has emerged: what to do with the millions of dollars in tolls collected since the beginning of the year? That question likely will be determined by the courts.
Last week, District Judge William Morvant nullified the Nov. 6 election that extended the tolls for another 20 years by a 36-vote margin. The ruling focused on the fact that at least 1,000 registered voters were given provisional ballots that included only federal races, denying them the chance to weigh in on the toll issue.
Morvant set a new election for May 4.
In the meantime, the state highway department has fallen back to plans that were set to go into effect if the tolls had ended on Jan. 1. While key services, such as Motorist Assistance Patrols, will remain, less essential services, such as grass cutting, litter collection and sweeping the bridge, are being scaled back.
State Police took over patrols on the bridge at the beginning of the year and were set to receive about $2 million a year from toll revenue. Without the tolls, State Police will absorb those costs into its $240 million annual budget. That shouldn't mean decreased patrol services either on the CCC or elsewhere in the state, State Police spokesman Capt. Doug Cain said.
Without tollbooths to staff, the state highway department laid off 31 workers last week. Those workers had been told they were probationary hires, and that their positions would be eliminated if the tolls were voted out, LeBas said.
The 25 workers involved in the collection of the tolls who remain employed are moving into back-office operations, such as accounting, needed to transition to a toll-less bridge, LeBas said. It's possible the department will lay off more workers before the second toll vote, she said.
Whichever way November's referendum went, the legislation that set it in motion called for the $31 million left in the CCC's accounts after its bonds were paid to be split into three parts. About $12.7 million went to the bridge's operations for the rest of the state's fiscal year, which ends on June 30. Another $11.2 million went to a construction escrow fund, with the intention that it be used for a variety of projects related to the bridge. The rest goes to the Regional Planning Commission as part of a transition fund.
State Rep. Pat Connick, a vocal opponent of the tolls, has decried the cutbacks in what are considered less essential bridge services, and questioned how that money is being used. "The money is there. The money is on the books,'' said Connick, R-Harvey. "The money needs to come back to us for grass cutting, for lights."
Of particular concern for Connick is the money in the construction account. Money in that account is used for all state spending and, while it is typically replenished by issuing bonds or adding more cash, the state's Legislative Fiscal Office has raised questions about whether current conditions could hamper that effort. The state has already scaled back on some bond issues in the face of a looming debt limit and a tight budget could preclude adding more money to the fund.
"I want to get details for what projects they intend to work on," Connick said. "We've got to understand the amount of money in the account and where they have it going.''
State highway department officials have said the money in the account will be used for the projects it was intended for.
The issues of lighting and ferries will be up to the New Orleans Regional Planning Commission, which can use about $4 million of the transition fund for bridge services. Executive Director Walter Brooks did not respond to several requests for comment last week about how that money would be used.
A key issue is lighting, both the decorative lights on the exterior of the spans and those that shine onto the roadway itself. Without lighting, the bridge's striping and raised pavement markers will continue to "provide safe travel," LeBas said.
Another issue is the fate of the ferries, which were turned over to the regional planning commission as part of the deal setting the referendum last session. That measure severed the ferry funding from the tolls.
Last year, the state sought to privatize the ferries, and dedicated about $4 million for improvements to the boats as an added bonus for potential buyers. But no one took the state up on the offer when it put the ferry service out to bid last year.
The state budgeted has enough money to keep the ferries running through the end of June. At that point, it will be up to the Regional Planning Commission to determine what happens next, LeBas said.
Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, said that he doesn't envision a future in which the ferries "exist as we have them now. There won't be funding available to run them."
The state is also grappling with a problem unanticipated by legislators who drafted the toll referendum: what to do with the money collected during the first two months of this year, between the election and the judge's nullification of the tolls?
It amounts to about $5.2 million, and the money is being held by the state highway department until it becomes clear how it can be used. That will likely come from the courts or, should the May election reinstate the tolls, by the voters, LeBas said.
"We are going to be looking to the courts for direction on what to do," she said.
Staff Writer Andrea Shaw contributed to this report.