A proposal to increase fares by at least $1 for vehicles crossing the Mackinac Bridge is drawing protests from communities that depend on the only land link between Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas.
Mayor Bruce Dodson has suggested a modest increase in bridge fares would go down more easily with customers, according to the Associated Press.
The proposal is to charge passenger vehicles $2.50 -- up from $1.50; trucks $3 per axle, up from $2 per axle; and commuter vehicles $2, up from $1.25.
Other officials, including former authority executive secretary and Republican state Sen. Walter North oppose the fare hike.
The authority says the current fare structure on the bridge will leave it short of funds by 2006, and that its balance sheet will be in the red through 2022. The authority's last significant rate increase came in 1995, when tolls on commercial vehicles were raised.
Local officials and tourist business owners fear that a sharp increase in fares will deter summer visitor traffic in the same way that trucking traffic fell off after the 1995 commercial fare hike.
Some 4.8 million vehicles are expected to cross the five-mile span this year.
With the proposed rate hikes, the Authority anticipates $16.5 million annual revenues.
Mayor Bruce Dodson has suggested a modest increase in bridge fares would go down more easily with customers, according to the Associated Press.
The proposal is to charge passenger vehicles $2.50 -- up from $1.50; trucks $3 per axle, up from $2 per axle; and commuter vehicles $2, up from $1.25.
Other officials, including former authority executive secretary and Republican state Sen. Walter North oppose the fare hike.
The authority says the current fare structure on the bridge will leave it short of funds by 2006, and that its balance sheet will be in the red through 2022. The authority's last significant rate increase came in 1995, when tolls on commercial vehicles were raised.
Local officials and tourist business owners fear that a sharp increase in fares will deter summer visitor traffic in the same way that trucking traffic fell off after the 1995 commercial fare hike.
Some 4.8 million vehicles are expected to cross the five-mile span this year.
With the proposed rate hikes, the Authority anticipates $16.5 million annual revenues.
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