Commissioners in eight coastal North Carolina counties plan to adopt a joint resolution on Monday that will be sent to the General Assembly expressing their opposition to adding and raising tolls on state ferry routes.

Currituck and Dare board members are also expected to pass stand-alone resolutions Monday that oppose the addition of tolls on the routes specifically serving their counties.

Last month the North Carolina Senate approved a $32.6 billion state budget for the next two fiscal years that has been sent to the state House, which is expected to reject and then propose their own version of a spending plan.

The toll changes are an effort to generate more revenue for the cash-strapped N.C. Department of Transportation and specifically for the Ferry Division, according to the plan’s backers.

However, there has been considerable pushback from Outer Banks and inland legislators, and the ferry toll proposals have drawn vocal opposition from local government leaders and business owners.

“(T)he imposition of tolls on routes that are currently free will constitute an unfair taxation burden and economic hardship on the residents and businesses of eastern North Carolina,” the leaders of Currituck, Dare, Hyde, Beaufort, Pamlico, Carteret, Craven, and Brunswick counties state. “Toll increases on routes with existing tolls constitute an unfair taxation burden and economic hardship on the residents, businesses and visitors of eastern North Carolina.”

“(A) state-maintained ferry system which is free to residents and the public at large is as critical as, and directly akin to, the state maintained road system that ensures ease of travel, access and commerce to all citizen of North Carolina,” Dare County’s stand-alone resolution reads.

“The Knotts Island community is geographically isolated from the rest of North Carolina, and the Currituck/Knotts Island ferry serves as a lifeline to Currituck County and the mainland of our state,” said Currituck Commissioner Tony Angell, who represents the island at the north end of Currituck Sound.

“It is the primary route our children take to attend school, return home from sleepovers, and travel with friends to and from the island,” Angell said. “Expecting teenage drivers to pay $150 for a ferry pass or to drive a significantly longer route through Virginia—on narrow roads with hazardous conditions, including deep ditches and frequent flooding to attend school — is both unreasonable and unsafe.”

“The ferry also plays a vital role for senior citizens, enabling them to travel to the county seat to access critical services and conduct necessary business,” Angell said. “This connectivity supports their independence and ability to engage with the broader community.

“It is unreasonable to impose additional costs on residents simply because they live in a geographically isolated area where ferry service is essential for daily life and access to the rest of the state,” Angell said.

“This legislation was a surprise to many of us so we had a little over 24 hours to try and come up with a strategy to block this legislation,” Hyde County Commissioner Randal Matthews, who represents Ocracoke, said the day after the provision first surfaced in the budget bill.

“We want the NC House to assess the economic impact and cost of creating toll collection which will certainly come out of the tight budget the ferry division is already working on,” Matthews said.

“We are arranging meetings with all of the chairs and co-chairs of Transportation Appropriation and the Appropriations Committee in the House,” Matthews said. “Our lobbyist is reaching out to all the senators and representatives who may help us stop the N.C. House legislation for additional tolling.”

“I’ll be in Raleigh with several others sometime in early May, again,” Matthews said.

The current rates of the Swan Quarter and Cedar Island routes is $15 for vehicles under 20 feet, $30 for vehicles 20 to 40 feet long, $45 for vehicles longer than 40 feet, and $1 per passenger.

Other rates are charged for motorcycles and bicyclists , but those categories were not detailed in the Senate budget proposal.

Rates on the Ocracoke Express, which runs seasonally between mid-May and early September, are $7.50 per passenger and $1 per bicycle. The Senate bill does not mention bicycles on the passenger-only route between Hatteras Harbor and Silver Lake.

Tolls would also be added on the Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach over the Neuse River and Bayview-Aurora over the Pamlico River at the same rate as Currituck-Knotts Island, while increasing on the Fort Fisher-Southport route.

The Senate budget also creates an annual pass for commuters and priority boarding of commercial vehicles that would allow unlimited rides at a cost of $150 per vehicle, per year.

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 states.

Senate Transportation Appropriations Co-Chair Sen. Vickie Sawyer (R-Iredell) told The News & Observer the highway department faces numerous funding challenges that have led to delays of projects statewide, while also rebuilding roads and bridges in the Western North Carolina washed away by Hurricane Helene.

“At this point it becomes an issue of fairness,” Sawyer, who is from the Charlotte suburb of Mooresville, told The N&O.

“When I’m paying $25 for my family to be able to access the city of Charlotte, then these people who are going across the beautiful Pamlico River should be able to pay a toll as well,” Sen. Sawyer said in a 2023 interview with WBTV-TV .

She was referencing the I-77 Express lanes, which use dynamic tolling to charge higher rates when traffic is heaviest along the direct connection between her hometown of Statesville and Uptown Charlotte.

Widening of I-77 using toll lanes, rather than allowing all traffic to use the additional lanes, has been a controversial subject in and around North Carolina’s largest metropolitan area.

They are similar to the express lanes recently added to I-64 in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, and along I-95 between Fredericksburg and the Capital Beltway in northern Virginia.

Another backer of previous ferry tolling attempts has been Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick), whose district includes the Cape Fear River route between Fort Fisher and Southport that already carries a toll, and is also a co-chair of the Senate Transportation Appropriations committee.

Sen. Bobby Hanig (R-Currituck), along with other coastal and inland lawmakers, have in the past been able to convince colleagues and leadership in both chambers to back off attempts to add tolls.

“We have a long history of connecting our rural citizens to areas of commerce, employment, schools and our pristine beaches, they become part of our heritage,” Hanig said during floor debate on an amendment he ran last month to strip the toll provisions from the Senate budget.

“Now there are folks in this body that think it’s okay to start charging a toll so these hard working, salt-of-the-earth North Carolinians can efficiently get to work, school, have access to shopping or simply enjoy all of our beautiful beaches, our ferries are extension of our highways, and should not be tolled with that,” Hanig said.

Hanig’s amendment was turned back on a 24-23 vote, which featured a rare procedural issue that required Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt to weigh-in.

Senators were voting to table the measure, rather than to approve, and a member asked to change their vote afterwards, but was not allowed to do so under Senate rules.

Hanig later was the only Republican to cast votes against passing the full budget, which he called “a risk” he was willing to take to block the ferry tolls.

The GOP has the majority in both chambers of the legislature, with the Senate having veto-proof control by the Republican Party.

The House may have less of a stomach for tolls in their version of the budget.

Rep. Keith Kidwell (R-Beaufort), who represents Hyde and part of Dare counties, succeeded in blocking previous attempts and said he will continue to do so.

“I will again work against ferry tolls,” Kidwell told Coastal Review. “Unless of course they want to toll all bridges that cross water in NC.”

Another Charlotte-area legislator, Rep. John Torbett (R-Gaston) went to social media to share his opposition to the ferry tolling plan.

“This will cost all North Carolinians who have to use the ferries to go to school, work, doctor, pretty much anywhere,” Torbett posted on Twitter .

Torbett said the tolls would not generate much revenue, and that regular funding sources are enough to cover the costs of running the ferry system.

“The answer is simply to prioritize the need to include ferries or perhaps toll all bridges throughout NC for fairness. I do not support tolls,” Torbett said.

Torbett is vice-chair of the House Appropriations Committee, which will put forth its own version of a budget in the coming weeks.

The North Carolina Ferry Division is the second largest state-run operation in the country, behind only Washington state, transporting an average of 712,282 vehicles and 2.4 million passengers over the last two fiscal years. Operations and maintenance costs totaled $65.3 million.

Hatteras-Ocracoke is the most popular route in the state, averaging 202,628 vehicles and 935,307 passengers, at a cost of nearly $25.55 million over the two year period.

During the same period, Currituck-Knotts Island route transported 15,605 vehicles and 92,148 passengers, costing just under $2.32 million.

The Swan Quarter route averaged 37,354 vehicles and 57,871 passengers at a cost of $6.92 million.

The Cedar Island route carried an average of 42,209 vehicles and 94,784 passengers for $9.23 million.

On the Ocracoke Express, the number of passengers averaged 18,881, with operations and maintenance costing $1.34 million.

Several other attempts have been made and shot down in the General Assembly to add tolls over the last 14 years.

In 2011, the same year Republicans gained control of both chambers from Democrats, their first budget added tolls to all routes.

But those tolls were rescinded prior to implementation due to local opposition, with General Assembly members even considering eliminating tolls altogether at one point.

The most recent toll attempt was in 2023, when a proposal was removed from the final version of a spending plan that was eventually vetoed by former Gov. Roy Cooper (D).