Marty I think you and I probably think along the same lines politically.
But the tol increase doesn't affect just people like US. Except for the absolute die hard O'Malley supporters who won't fault him for anything, you won't find many people who think this increase is necessary or a good idea.
At one of the public hearings regarding the increase, I believe I heard that the Bay Bridge operates "in the black" every year with an approximate PROFIT of $10 million. Much of the toll increase will be used to subsidize the ICC in Montgomery County (Which was recently named the richest county in America....and THEY get subsidized tolls??????
)
I sincerely hope that in a few years I'll look back and say, "Wow, maybe that increase was a good idea after all" but I HIGHLY doubt it.
In the last 6 years we've had a 20% increase in sales tax, a 3% increase in alcohol tax, a beverage tax if you live or work in Baltimore, the "flush tax" is about to get tripled, fuel tax is going UP 15 cents a gallon, and the tools will have at least doubled for some travellers, and tripled for others. These are just the big ones that I can remember.
Of course my property taxes went up, as did my auto and homeowner's insurance, water bill (I'm on well water, but they soak me for the same amount of money every quarter as when I was living in north county with public water and sewer), healthcare insurance (went up $1100 over the past two years...
where's this "affordable healthcare" we keep hearing about?)
Before I lost my job, I hadn't even gotten any kind of raise in 3 years. So the math just ain't working in my favor. More money going out, and less money coming in.
But I digress.
How will the increase in tolls and fuel taxes affect everyone's fishing plans next year?