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Florida wants an extra quarter from Pinellas Bayway drivers next year, and some residents are fighting it.
"It's terribly unfair and inequitable to penalize the users of the Pinellas Bayway," said Bayway Isles resident Travis Jarman. "It's the only remaining toll road in Pinellas County."
As part of statewide changes, the east and west tolls will rise from 50 cents to 75 cents for cash-paying customers, and the fee on the southern route rise from 35 cents to 50 cents. SunPass users will pay 50 cents at the east and west routes and 25 cents at the south end.
The state will not change the $50 annual pass for the bayway, or a $15 annual pass for Bayway Isles residents granted in a decades-old agreement.
That could soften opposition to the increases, unlike a 2008 proposal for steeper increases on tolls and passes that failed, said Paul Murray, president of the Tierra Verde Community Association. Still, residents dislike tolls.
"Why the heck do we have to pay to come home?" Murray asked.
Opponents have an ally in state Rep. Jim Frishe, R-St. Petersburg.
Frishe opposes the bayway increases because state law setting the tolls hasn't been repealed.
One obstacle to raising the tolls in 2008 was that the Legislature had to repeal state law setting bayway tolls. Tolls at the east and west toll plazas haven't gone up since 1986. The charge for the southern route has been the same since 1962.
"I don't think there's going to be a bayway increase," said Frishe. "I think their lawyers are going to run into a brick wall when they get to it."
But state transportation officials are banking on a 2007 law, which Frishe voted for, that requires toll adjustments based on inflation at least every five years. The increases affect toll roads across the state.
For the full article, visit the St. Petersburg Times.
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