Transportation officials, the governor and a state representative all said the Cape Cod bridges will remain toll-free after a town official floated the idea of taxing motorists from outside the region.
Healey said Wednesday she does not support tolls on the Sagamore and Bourne bridges and hopes to “make continued progress” on renovating the 90-year-old structures that state officials have deemed “functionally obsolete.”
“That’s been something that we prioritized and want to move ahead on,” the governor said of infrastructure improvements, “but not tolls on the bridges.”
Healey’s comments at the State House on Wednesday came after the Herald first reported Tuesday that Mashpee Select Board Vice Chairman David Weeden had pitched an idea of tolls on the bridges resembling congestion pricing.
Speaking at a Select Board meeting on Monday, Weeden estimated charging motorists from outside Cape Cod to enter the popular vacation getaway would bring in tens of millions annually. He suggested that the money should be earmarked to address “coastal and water quality issues.”
“Massachusetts reaps the benefits of Cape Cod tourism,” Weeden said. “It is a significant amount of money that comes into the state through the tourism that we receive here on the Cape. They come over here and leave their stuff behind, and we are left to deal with it.”
The state Department of Transportation quickly shot down the idea.
“Tolls at the crossings over the Cape Cod Canal are not being considered,” MassDOT Spokeswoman Jacquelyn Goddard told the Herald Tuesday night.
Weeden suggested officials at the local and state level consider “some approach” where Cape Codders aren’t being charged to cross the bridges. He added that the idea could take the shape of an E-ZPass exclusion.
State Rep. Steven Xiarhos, a Republican who represents Barnstable, Bourne, and Sandwich, said he understands “some of the sentiment behind the suggestion,” as he “regularly travels over the bridges and walks, runs, and rides along the canal recreation paths.”
“But respectfully, I remain firmly opposed to any tolls on our bridges,” Xiarhos said in a Facebook post Wednesday morning. “A toll is a tax – and the working families who rely on those bridges for their daily commutes simply can’t afford the added burden.”
“Yes, the bridges bring in precious tourist dollars that help drive our local economy, and that’s important,” he added. “But they are also a lifeline to the mainland for those of us who call the Cape home. I’m not willing to charge people a fee just for the privilege of living here.”
Local, state and federal agencies are working to replace the Sagamore and Bourne bridges, owned, operated, and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Officials had received $1.7 billion in federal funding for the estimated $4.5 billion effort as of last year.
Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt didn’t rule out tolls last year as a potential source to fund the replacements.
“As for the construction of new bridges – which I fully support – my position is the same: No tolls,” Xiarhos wrote in his Facebook post. “The cost of rebuilding aging federal infrastructure should not fall on the shoulders of Cape residents.”
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