Jaffrey Selectman Frank Sterling is all for raising tolls on New Hampshire turnpikes.
After hearing a presentation from state Department of Transportation officials on Wednesday evening about their roadwork plans for the next 10 years, and the major funding challenges they face, he said it’s clear that something must be done.
“Your revenue is not even meeting modest expectations, and your revenue seems to be falling, and you need to bring that funding back up to continue to improve the turnpike roads in New Hampshire,” Sterling said.
New Hampshire is overextended by roughly $400 million on road construction and maintenance projects over the next decade, said Tobey Reynolds, the state Department of Transportation’s assistant director for project development.
He explained the state’s 10-year transportation plan and financial situation at a meeting of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Intermodal Transportation, hosted by Executive Councilor David Wheeler. Transportation revenue streams have stayed mostly flat, coming up short of projections, Reynolds said, while construction costs have only increased. The state also took on debts to help pay for prior projects that are now coming due.
A bill in the Legislature established a small, extra gas tax about a decade ago, which has been used for road maintenance, Reynolds said. Now, the Department of Transportation will need to redirect about $20 million per year away from projects to pay the debt.
“From 2014 till now, we’ve been able to use that revenue to invest in pavement on rural roads and bridges on rural roads, and that’s one of the reasons we’ve seen a good increase in the condition of pavements and bridges in rural roads,” Reynolds said.
The transportation agency is exploring solutions to help fill the gap, Reynolds said, including an increase to the state’s 23.83 cents-per-gallon gas tax and a toll hike on the state’s turnpikes: Interstate-93, Interstate-95 and the Spaulding Turnpike.
Even a $1 increase would help, he said, while still keeping New Hampshire’s tolls on the low end. The Granite State currently has the lowest toll cost per mile in the U.S. and hasn’t raised tolls statewide since 2007. Any change to toll rates would require a vote by the Executive Council.
Sterling, who supports a prospective toll increase, also lauded a recent move by the state Legislature to place levies on electric vehicles, which don’t pay into the gas tax.
Charlie Turcotte, another Jaffrey Select Board member, said he, too, supports higher tolls on turnpikes.
“Tolls, especially today’s tolls, with the electronic systems that we have, if you use it, then you should pay for it,” Turcotte said. “That kind of funding is extremely important to the transportation fund.”
While Reynolds said the state is trying to raise revenue, it’s also cutting expenses. Many roadwork projects across the state are either partially or entirely nixed from the plan, and no new projects were accepted this year.
The Monadnock region remained mostly untouched, with 17 projects totaling $65 million still included in the plan. Four projects, totaling $14.2 million, were removed, including safety improvements to the intersection of Route 9, Route 31 and the Second New Hampshire Turnpike in Hillsborough.
Community members said they’d like to see some added, including traffic calming improvements to Route 10 in Swanzey and intersection work at Route 124 and Milliken Road in Jaffrey.
Lisa Steadman, who lives in Troy and works for the Southwest Region Planning Commission, said she was glad to see that some funds were kept in the 10-year plan for public transit. Her son, Max, has Down Syndrome, she said, and she doesn’t know if he’ll be able to get around once he’s grown because public transportation is so limited in their rural corner of the state.
Investing in more of that, such as bus routes bringing people from surrounding areas into the population centers of Keene and Peterborough, Steadman said, would make a huge difference for her family.
“Max is 14, and I’m hopeful that by the time he is ready to move out of my house, he’ll be able to get himself around through transportation options that are easy for him to understand,” Steadman said.
For a list of projects included in the 10-year plan, visit the Department of Transportation’s website.
The plan is open for public comment until Nov. 3, which can be done at local meetings or online. Executive councilor Karen Liot Hill will host a public hearing at the Peterborough Town Library on the same proposal on Wednesday, Oct. 22, at 12 p.m.
