By SAMANTHA PERRY
BLUEFIELD — Just hours after the Parkways Authority voted to increase tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike, Gov. Joe Manchin praised the informed public of Mercer and surrounding counties who took an interest and voiced opinions about the increase.
Manchin said “the involvement, the concern and the sincere interest” of the people in southern West Virginia “kept everybody working as hard as they could” on the toll issue.
“I think, basically, that culminated in finding the best possible solution they could come up with,” he said.
Manchin praised Mercer County and the people here. “Mercer County is a tremendous segue into our state,” he said. “For people to believe they are being punished is wrong ... that’s never been the attitude or atmosphere here.”
The Parkways, Economic Development and Tourism Authority voted Wednesday to raise tolls for passenger vehicles from $1.25 to $2 and for large trucks from $4.25 to $6.75.
Manchin praised the authority for its decision to change the way it pays off the Tamarack debt, which will free up about $1.4 million a year. This move allowed the authority to offer discounts for travelers who purchase the West Virginia E-Z Pass.
Passenger cars with an E-Z Pass, purchased for an annual fee of $5, will pay $1.30 per toll, with large trucks paying $5.40. “Commuter passes didn’t go up a penny,” Manchin said. “E-Z Pass went up a nickel. I think that anyone would suspect that over 25 years that some adjustments would be made to meet the fiduciary responsibility of the bonds.”
Manchin said officials have worked to “get rid of all the outside drain” on the parkways budget, so toll money can go for maintenance and upkeep and toward the bonds.
Plans are to move Tamarack from under the parkways umbrella, Manchin said, noting he hopes this can be accomplished “as soon as the market gets better.”
While acknowledging the turnpike’s financial problems have been years in the making, Manchin said, “I did not blame anybody, nor will I.”
“The action the authority took today was the most responsible and compassionate one,” he said. “And I would encourage people to buy the E-Z or commuter pass ... and they still have the option to use the old road.”
Manchin said the decision to raise the tolls “had to be made” to meet the bonds. At present, the bonds are scheduled to be paid off in 2019, a date “that is not that far down the road,” Manchin said.
Ten years from now, “the citizens of southern West Virginia will have the ability and have the option to decide for themselves” whether or not to turn the road over to the federal highway system, Manchin said. If that decision had to be made today, Manchin predicted no one would have taken the highway due to its state of “disrepair.”
“We made the right decision,” Manchin said, in reference to the authority’s vote. Without the toll increase, “we would have never had the option to turn it over.”
Addressing the federal highway money allocated for the turnpike that was used on other state roads, Manchin said, “Every state operates the same as West Virginia.”
Manchin did question the yearly $10 million figure that has been publicized, saying it has not always been that amount. However, he said the state will look at allocating that money toward upkeep and maintenance of the turnpike.
Manchin said West Virginia is facing “shortfalls all over the state” for road and highway repair. “How it’s going to be allocated in the highway budget — I think that everything should be proportionate.”
— Contact Samantha Perry at sperry@bdtonline.com
