PD Editorial: North Coast input needed on bridge tolls

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes," Benjamin Franklin wrote to a friend 225 years ago. In hindsight, he should have added one more certainty - escalating bridge tolls.

Next week, the Golden Gate Bridge District will host a public hearing on its plan to boost tolls by up to $2 over the next five years. In general, the plan calls for increasing overall rates from $5 to $6.50 or $7 for FastTrak users and from $6 to $8 for others.

Locals are being asked to comment on four toll-increasing options, none of which strike us as ideal. All except one would end up at the same place, with FasTrak drivers paying $7 while those who use the new pay-by-license plate system paying $1 more.

The preferred alternative in our view is the least-painful one. Option No. 1 calls for increasing tolls by 50 cents this April, followed by 25-cent increases each July from 2015 to 2018, when tolls would hit $6.50 for FasTrak users and $8 for all others.

This is somewhat better than other options including one that calls for boosting rates $1 in April followed by 25 cent increases every July from 2015 to 2018.

While the first option would net the Golden Gate Bridge District less money in the near term - $93 million vs. $138 million - it offers greater sensitivity to the economic realities confronting many Bay Area workers still struggling to make ends meet and for whom commuting to the city is the only alternative. Better still, we would prefer a plan that offers financial incentives for commuters who travel to and from the city during off-peak hours. But that doesn't appear to be an option at this point.

None of this is to suggest that the bridge district's case for increasing tolls is without merit. On the contrary, the district has made a good case for why another toll increase - its first since 2008 - is needed.

Given the district's long list of capital needs, bridge officials are projecting a five-year shortfall of $142 million. This comes despite the fact that the district has cut staff by 25 percent in recent years by eliminating toll takers and ferry boat ticket agents, removed low-ridership Golden Gate Transit runs and raised bus and ferry fares slightly. The district also has lowered its pension and health care costs through collective bargaining.

The district's capital needs include:

; Installing a moveable median barrier on the bridge at a cost of $26.5 million. Most of the funding would come from grants, but more than $5 million would need to come from toll revenue.

; A $55 million upgrade of the passenger boarding facilities at ferry terminals in Larkspur, San Francisco and Sausalito. These facilities are more than 40 years old and require new systems including new ramps, ferry slips, floats, etc.

; Getting new buses, 98 of which will be in need of replacement over the next five years. The majority of the cost of this, $46.4 million, would come from grants, but $10 million would come from tolls.

In addition, the bridge district is on the hook for $75 million toward the Doyle Drive reconstruction project.

Given that tolls remain the district's primary source of revenue, the only real alternative to increases is to cut back on ferry and bus service or raise fares, which would only discourage transit use and increase traffic problems.

We encourage local readers to share their thoughts about these toll increases by going to the district's web site at www.goldengate.org or by attending the public hearing Wednesday at the San Rafael City Council chambers beginning at 7 p.m.