Almost everyone who listened to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s presentation agreed with its pitch to increase tolls by $1 on state turnpikes: The fee is worth it to fund roadwork and construction projects over the next decade.
But not Mandy Carter.
Working at a resource center in Peterborough for people with disabilities, Carter said she often helps families who need transportation assistance or are financially struggling. A $1 toll increase would be “awful,” she said.
“They’re already pinching pennies to buy bread,” Carter said. “Something as little as a dollar is not really little.”
The proposed increase is being discussed because the state’s plan for construction and road maintenance over the next year is “oversubscribed” by about $400 million, said executive councilor Karen Liot Hill, who held a public hearing at the Peterborough Town Library on Wednesday.
“That means that not only can we accept no new additions to the plan, we have to make substantial cuts,” she said.
Tobey Reynolds, the state transportation agency’s assistant director for project development, said transportation revenue streams have stayed mostly flat, falling short of projections, while construction costs have increased.
The state also took on debts years ago to help pay for prior projects and those debts are coming due.
The state legislature established a roughly 4-cent increase to the state gas tax about a decade ago, which has been used for road maintenance, Reynolds said. Now, the Department of Transportation will need to shuffle that roughly $20 million per year in revenue away from projects to pay the debt.
“We were able to use that revenue to invest in rural roads, both pavement and bridges, and that’s why we’ve seen a good gain in the condition of those roads,” Reynolds said. “Now we need to redirect that funding to pay our debt service, so that funding is not available for that investment any longer.”
Neither a toll hike nor a potential gas tax increase will go through without votes from elected officials. Toll increases are decided by the Executive Council, while tax and fee hikes go to the legislature.
If the Executive Council were to increase tolls, Liot Hill suggested a resident discount could make it so the revenue stream is funded mostly by out-of-state tourists instead of Granite Staters.
While the state is looking to raise revenue, it’s also cutting expenses. Many current, planned and hoped-for 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.
Residents opposed the fates of some projects, particularly one in Marlborough that didn’t make it into the plan and one in Swanzey that was removed from the plan.
One project that did make it in, however, is a $1.9 million safety improvement to Main Street in downtown Antrim.
“They have had a serious injury on the Main Street from a crash,” said J.B. Mack, assistant director of the Southwest Region Planning Commission. “They’re looking to improve pedestrian crossings on their Main Street area, rehabilitate a small portion of sidewalk and build some new sidewalks so that residents that live just outside of the downtown can get there where there’s a school and a bunch of services that are provided to folks in that community.”
Several people also asked the state to increase public transportation options. The only bus routes in the Monadnock region are centered in Keene, with no intercity or intertown transit. Some community shuttles and volunteer driver services exist to help people who need them, but can be unreliable, according to advocates.
“Transportation barriers are not just an inconvenience. They are a structural inequity. They limit access to healthcare, education, employment and a connection to their community,” Mandy Carter said. “I urge you to prioritize rural transportation infrastructure and coordination. … Rural communities like ours need an integrated, dependable and accessible system, not a patchwork of well-intended, scant services.”