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hen summer comes this year, more than the heat will be taking a toll. On July first, NC Ferry Division employees are to begin collecting tolls on the Minnesott-Cherry Branch ferry route. $4 for each vehicle (driver included), for each crossing of the Neuse River. A dollar extra for every passenger. More for bigger vehicles.

A grassroots effort, largely based here in Pamlico County, is once again trying to fend off that toll and an even larger one for the Bayview-Aurora route across the Pamlico River. There, the one-way trip would cost $10 car and $2 for each passenger.

Right now, toll opponents — who call the toll a “ferry tax” — are looking for a big turnout for two Department of Transportation hearings this month. One is next Monday, March 11 in Raleigh, followed up by another at Pamlico Community College on Monday March 18.

Tag team. Two ferries ply the waters of the Neuse River, passing halfway between Cherry Branch and Minnesott Beach. The Legislature has ordered tolls to be charged here on July 1.

For many, this may all have a familiar ring.

Legislature To Commuter Ferry Riders: Pay Up.

Last winter, Pamlico County was hit with the news that the ferries serving residents here would start charging a toll in the spring of 2012.

The story actually began a year earlier, during the NC Legislature’s 2011 session. There, and with with very little resistance from local legislative representatives such as now-Senator Norm Sanderson, the Republican-controlled legislature voted to start charging tolls on the Pamlico and Neuse River ferries.

Five hundred people turned out last February at Pamlico Community College for the DOT hearing on ferry tolls. Greg Piner (with back to camera) said then, “This isn’t a DOT issue. This is a General Assembly issue.” As a result of the outcry, the Legislature did delay the tolls. Now they’re to take effect this July 1 and Piner and other local organizers are working to get the Legislature to again — and more permanently — spare the local commuter ferries.

The Legislature’s stated rationale for the toll was that the Ferry Division had to increase its revenue from $2 million to $5 million a year. That’s gross, not net. The Legislature gave no direction of how much it actually wanted the Ferry System to make after overhead. That led to questions about the Legislature’s reasoning for the tolls. There were still other questions about why some routes would pay and some would not.

A concerted grassroots campaign to fight the tolls got rolling last winter and spring. The Pamlico County Board of Commissioners hired a lobbying firm to do what the county’s Legislative delegation hadn’t. Then-Governor Bev Perdue placed a moratorium on the tolls. The General Assembly put the tolls off until July of 2013.

Tolls Once Delayed, May Soon Have To Be Paid

On July 1, the Neuse River ferry will cost $4 a car per trip. Each passenger will be $1 more. A yearly pass for a car on that route would start at $150. (As noted, it will be even pricier for the longer trip across the Pamlico River between Aurora and Bayview.) Some Pamlico County residents are trying to stop that.

In a bid to stop that, those who led last year’s grassroots effort — Greg Piner and Larry Summers in Oriental — have been renewing their fight — as has the McClees lobbying firm. Freshman State House Representative Michael Speciale has introduced a bill to keep those ferries from being tolled; it has not made it out of committee yet.

The loading ramp at the Minnesott Beach side of the Neuse River ferry run, early one morning before a line of vehicles rolled on board.

The big challenge is to persuade legislators in other parts of NC who may view the ferries as non-essential and a ripe target for tolls. Part of that inclination may come from not drawing a distinction between commuter ferries and those that tourists ride.

Distinguishing Between Ferries

In the view of Pamlico County’s ferry toll opponents, tolls on the Cherry Branch-Minnesott and Aurora-Bayview are inappropriate because they are commuter ferries. They take people to their jobs, to shopping, doctors visits and other errands. They are not heavily used by vacationers, at least judging by the license plates that were noted in a study a few years ago.

By contrast, the most heavily traveled ferry route in NC – and one which could raise the most money – is between Ocracoke and Hatteras, where more than half of the vehicles have out of state plates. The Legislature however, chose to keep that ferry free. As a result, large numbers of vacationers ride free, while Pamlico County area residents who take the Neuse River ferry to their jobs, or on errands, will have to pay to ride.

The ferry, Croatan, taking a school bus and other vehicles across the Neuse River from Cherry Branch. On this route, school buses would be charged at least $8 under the under the tolling plan and while passengers over the age of 12 would pay $1 each. The prices are twice as much on the Pamlico River route.

Toll = Tax, Ferry = Bridge

The ferries serve as the bridges local residents use for their everyday lives. Bridges, like other roads projects are paid for out of the NC gasoline tax. They are not tolled and ferry toll opponents argue that their bridges – the ferries – should not be tolled either. (Click here for a March 2012 column on this point.)

The bridge analogy is underscored by the official highway map that the NC DOT distributes across the state and at rest stops. It clearly shows NC Highway 306 extending from Minnesott Beach across the Neuse River to Cherry Branch and beyond.

DOT Hearings: Raleigh March 11, Pamlico County March 18

Toll opponents are hoping for a sizeable turnout at two DOT hearings on the toll issue this month. One hearing is being held at Pamlico Community College where hundreds turned out for a hearing last year. That’ll be on Monday, March 18 at 7p.

Last February’s DOT hearing at Pamlico Community College, which 500 people attended. Minnesott Beach Mayor Josh Potter was one of the last speakers in a session that stretched for more than 2 hours.

First though, there’s an earlier hearing on Monday March 11 at 7p in Raleigh. Car pools are being arranged (via Greg Piner and Larry Summers) and in neighboring Beaufort County, a bus is leaving from the community college there in Washington next Monday afternoon. (For more details, click here.)

Posted Friday March 8, 2013 by Melinda Penkava