Some lawmakers want new tolls repealed

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A General Assembly committee recommended Monday legislation to repeal proposed new and higher tolls on North Carolina ferry routes that have been at the center of a dispute between Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue and Republican legislative leaders.

No one on the Legislature's transportation oversight committee voted against the proposed bill, which is eligible for consideration when the budget-adjusting session begins next month. But several Senate Republicans on the panel abstained from voting, meaning the two chambers aren't necessarily united on the issue heading into the May 16 session.

Coastal legislators on the panel pushed for the repeal of the budget provision last year that Republicans say required collecting ferry tolls on more routes starting April 1 to generate $5 million in revenues.

They didn't take sides Monday in the fight between Perdue, who signed an executive order Feb. 29 placing a yearlong moratorium on the additional tolls, and legislative leaders who said she couldn't fail to carry out the law and collect the new tolls. Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat, has agreed with lawmakers on the constitutional question on implementing the law.

Rep. Tim Spear, D-Washington, which introduced a similar repeal bill to the committee earlier this month, did cite many of Perdue's reasons for blocking the tolls anyway. The coastal region is still recovering from Hurricane Irene last August, Spear said.

"With the economy and the situation we're in right now and gasoline hovering around $4 a gallon ... these tolls are a real impediment to people, especially those in some of the counties that depend on these ferries for basic transportation," Spear told the committee.

GOP senators on the panel said they wouldn't vote to avoid standing in the way of legislation, but didn't sound sold yet on the idea.

"I'm not ready to take a stand on this," said committee member Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, "but I'll just say that I feel like there are a lot of things that need to be worked out before this finally comes out for any kind of approval."

Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, the committee's co-chairman, said he'd prefer a plan in which all routes were tolled or there should be none at all, but added he appreciated the extenuating circumstances Spear mentioned.

In a prepared statement, Perdue called Monday's vote "a step in the right direction" to eliminate what she calls an "unnecessary and discriminatory burden on the working families who depend on the ferries every day." Perdue's office has argued the provision creating new tolls still gave her administration discretion not to collect them.

The state Department of Transportation had been prepared to raise tolls on three routes and create new tolls on two others before the executive order. The new tolls would have been created for routes between Cherry Branch and Minnesott Beach and between Bayview and Aurora.