Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Here's everything you need to know about tomorrow's scheduled House Finance Committee meeting. An anti-toll rally is scheduled for noon.
Are you headed to the State House for tomorrow's hearings on bridge tolls? Here's everything you need to know before you leave the door. The Basics Two bills dealing with bridge tolls are scheduled today for a hearing: 2013-H 5137 and 2013-H 5644. Both would repeal the transfer of authority for the Sakonnet River Bridge and the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge from the Department of Transportation to the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority. Residents are being urged to attend a rally at noon today, before the bills are heard in committee. The House Finance Committee is scheduled to take up the bills at 1 pm. An identical Senate bill, 2013-S 0020, has been introduced by Sen. Walter S. Felag Jr. (D-Dist. 10, Warren, Bristol, Tiverton…
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority voted to establish tolling rates today the Sakonnet River Bridge.
Tolls are expected to be in place on the Sakonnet River Bridge by July, the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority chairman said following the board's meeting held this morning to establish toll rates. Drivers with a Rhode Island E-Z Pass transponder will pay 75 cents to cross the Sakonnet River. Drivers with out-of-state transponders will pay $3.75 per trip and travelers without an E-Z Pass transponder will be billed $5.25 per trip. "For the first time we will be offering a discount for people driving back and forth more than once a day," said David Darlington, RITBA chairman in an interview after the RITBA meeting in Jamestown on Wednesday. For local drivers, regardless of the number of trips over the Sakonnet River Bridge in a …
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Rep. Gallison says the Turnpike and Bridge Authority should give the public more chances to oppose bridge tolls.
Rep. Raymond Gallison (D-Dist. 69, Bristol and Portsmouth) says the fight against bridge tolls is "certainly not over" and more workshops should be held. The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority will hold two bridge toll workshops this Saturday at the Roger Williams University Conference Center. The first workshop is scheduled from 9 am to noon. The second workshop will be held from 1 to 3 pm. Gallison released the following statement on Wednesday in response to the workshops being scheduled. Chairman Dalington can say that Saturday's workshops may be the only opportunity for East Bay, Aquidneck Island and Southcoast residents to comment on the toll rates but he doesn't set the policies and laws for the State of Rhode Island …
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Legislators told the Tiverton Town Council on Monday that any plans to stop tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge would leave a $17 million funding gap.
East Bay legislators told the Tiverton Town Council on Monday that any efforts to undermine the the placement of tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge would need to address a $17 million annual funding shortfall. According to Sen. Louis P. DiPalma, to maintain Newport County's four bridges — the Newport Pell Bridge, Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge, Mt. Hope Bridge, and the Sakonnet — will cost the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority (RITBA) an estimated $38 million annually over the next 10 years. Effectively, the revenues from a Sakonnet River Bridge toll would do more to pay for maintenance projects on the RITBA's other older bridges, as the Sakonnet River Bridge is a state-of-the-art new construction, said Rep. John G. Edwards (D-Dist…
art G
6:26 pm on Thursday, April 18, 2013
the Rhode Island government doesn't seem to get it, we don't have to live and pay taxes in Rhode Island. i moved about 3 years ago and now i pay $3.18 for gas, about $1200 in taxes on my house a year, no car or boat tax, and i'm only 5 miles from the ocean. i love living on the GA coast. i'm not buying heating oil anymore ether. people in RI are paying "tax" just like the businesses paid "tax" … more ›