As the toll on the proposed I-10 Mobile Bay Bridge continues to be the hot-button issue of the day in southwestern Alabama, the number of those in support of tolling is shrinking.
Republican candidates for Alabama’s 2020 U.S. Senate election and the first congressional district of Alabama’s U.S. House of Representatives seat to be vacated by U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) have all spoken out against an Alabama Department of Transportation proposal that would levy a toll of up to $6 each way for bridge-crossers.
The opposition does not stop there. In a letter to Gov. Kay Ivey obtained by Yellowhammer News, the Mobile County legislative delegation has voiced its opposition to a toll that would be levied on those in the “greater Mobile area.”
The letter to Ivey, with ALDOT Director John Cooper copied, was signed by Reps. Victor Gaston (R-Mobile), Adline Clarke (D-Mobile), Shane Stringer (R-Satsuma), Sam Jones (D-Mobile), Chris Pringle (R-Mobile), Napoleon Bracy (D-Prichard), Matt Simpson (R-Daphne), Chip Brown (R-Mobile), Margie Wilcox (R-Mobile) and Barbara Drummond (D-Mobile).
“The below undersigned members of the Mobile County delegation of the Alabama House of Representatives are opposed to charging Mobile area residents a toll to use the I-10 bridge that will be constructed over the Bayway. A toll would have a detrimental impact on individuals and families that we represent in the greater Mobile area. A toll could cost an individual hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars a year, which would be a huge financial burden on many of our constituents.
We are mindful of the efforts to improve the infrastructure in our state and appreciate these efforts to meet the needs of the citizens of Mobile County. We are certainly grateful that the bridge will be built, and hope that other funding possibilities will be explored to pay for its construction. Allow recreational users from out of state to pay the toll, not the working men and women of Mobile and Baldwin counties.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV and host of “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN in Huntsville.
