By Mannix Porterfield
Nothing stirred passions as much or as long in 2009 as the higher tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike.
From the red-carpeted and ornate Senate chamber to the greasy-spoon truck stops in southern counties, the message was the same: Leave tolls in place, or better yet, eliminate them outright.
Tolls had been static on the 88-mile highway since 1981.
Over the years, however, the road’s governing board, the West Virginia Parkways Authority, saw its revenues swallowed up by the inflated costs of providing maintenance on a road that was rapidly deteriorating.
To accent that point, the authority took news reporters on a two-day, full-length inspection of the road, pointing out myriad deficiencies — crumbling bridges, rusted out culverts, road slippages and rotting guardrails.
Mindful of the media interest in its pending decision, the authority moved a historic meeting July 1 from its office to the Charleston Civic Center, where, in fact, more reporters turned out than the general public.
The vote was unanimous — passenger cars would see an increase from $1.25 to $2, while five-axle commercial rigs would go from $4.25 to $6.75, although motorists with the E-ZPass transponders would get a substantial savings, as well as those enrolled in alternate frequent-user plans.
Even with discounts, the sour taste lingered.
New fares actually were imposed New Year’s Day in 2006 in a surprise vote by the authority at a meeting in Beckley.
But a circuit judge in Kanawha County, ruling in a lawsuit brought by trucking outfits, rejected the higher tolls and restored the fares to the 1981 levels.
That prompted a flurry of action by lawmakers, including legislation that compelled the authority to conduct public hearings on proposed toll increases in all four counties touching the highway — Kanawha, Raleigh, Fayette and Mercer.
Except for a feeble and quiet turnout in Charleston, the hearings evoked blistering attacks on the authority by southern West Virginia residents.
For months, Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, and Minority Leader Don Caruth, R-Mercer, worked in tandem in a failed effort to avert higher tolls, arguing that West Virginia should use stimulus money for turnpike repairs. Then came a revelation that some $10 million the toll road helped draw down annually for several years as West Virginia’s share of interstate roads went elsewhere.
Turnpike Manager Greg Barr and the authority, however, pointed to engineering and traffic studies showing that without additional revenue, the road would slip further into disrepair and might even have to be closed.
“We’re being treated as second-class citizens,” Caruth protested at the Civic Center meeting.
“We have been for a long time. To add insult to injury would be a toll increase.”
The idea was to elevate tolls to the level where the turnpike could capture an additional $20 million annually to begin taking care of deferred maintenance.
Before the Aug. 1 increase took effect, the protest continued, and one disgruntled lawmaker, Delegate Clif Moore, D-McDowell, vowed to block the Ghent toll plaza. Rolling fog shrouded the plaza that day, however, leaving Moore and some fellow delegates to stage a demonstration off the road.
Within a few days, revenues jumped 40 percent, and the authority wasted no time in launching repairs and performing preliminary work for major surfacing projects next spring.
Even with the dustup over for now, there have been indications the turnpike financing hasn’t faded with some lawmakers.
“It’s not going to be dead with us,” Delegate Linda Sumner, R-Raleigh, vowed, implying new legislation might be offered next year.
“We’re already thinking outside the box. You have to see what legally you can do because of interstate commerce, people traveling from other states.”
— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
