Crescent City Connection tolls extension passes after Orleans ...

The Crescent City Connection tolls will continue for another 20 years after Orleans Parish elections officials counted?military ballots?Tuesday from the highly contested Nov. 6 referendum. Approval of the initiative hung tenuously on a scant eight-vote margin until Tuesday, when the final difference rose to 16 votes after elections officials counted 32 military and overseas ballots.

More than 308,000 ballots were cast by voters in Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines, with Orleans the lone parish to affirm the measure.

Tuesday's votes bring the "yes'' total to 154,389, and the "no'' total to 154,373.

But the final results are likely to draw a challenge from grassroots groups opposed to the tolls, who questioned the veracity of the count in Orleans, where more than 25,000 early votes and thousands of ballots counted by hand were tallied last. The count in New Orleans pushed through election night last week and into the next morning, but not before the outcome swung in both directions.

Chris Granger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune Bill Bryan, top, representing State Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's office stands over the shoulder of Sandra Wilson, with the Orleans Parish registrar of voters, as she and Orleans Parish Board of Supervisors of Elections President Jay Batt, far left, Orleans Parish Clerk of Court Arthur Morrell and others hand count votes at City Hall on Tuesday, November 13, 2012. They were counting the CCC bridge toll votes. (Photo by Chris Granger, Nola.com / The Times-Picayune) Mail-In Ballots counted gallery (5 photos)

The campaign was considerably emotional as both sides held dueling press conferences and took to social media and email blasts to get out their messages.

Bridging Progress, a political action committee comprised of business advocacy groups around the metro area, spent $200,000 on television, radio and direct mail. The group argued the tolls were key to maintaining the nation's fifth busiest bridge in a condition to support economic development and mitigate traffic and public safety issues. They also cited the need to have a dedicated funding source for the span, since the state currently has a $12 billion backlog of infrastructure needs.

Bridging Progress enlisted the help of elected and law enforcement officials, trumpeting their platform in three news conferences. They said they represented more than 3,000 businesses with memberships in the Jefferson Chamber, Jefferson Business Council, Greater New Orleans Inc., Algiers Economic Development Foundation, Harvey Canal Industrial Association and Plaquemines Association of Business and Industry.

The anti-toll movement, led by state Rep. Pat Connick, R-Harvey, comprised more than 200 businesses, mainly on the West Bank, who asserted the tolls are an unfair burden placed on West Bank residents who have little to show for it. Connick spent his first term in the Legislature scrutinizing Crescent City Connection operations and finances, uncovering a $4 million insurance policy that wasn't needed; contracts awarded without following state guidelines; and payments for enhanced services, such as grass cutting, that were woefully inadequate.

Connick also argued state officials promised the tolls would lapse in 2012 once the bridge is paid for. He said Highway Fund No. 2, generated by license tag fees paid by metro residents and is split between the CCC and Causeway Bridge, could pay for CCC operations. The CCC's share is more than $5 million for the CCC, and those dollars, Connick has said, have been doled out by transportation officials to other areas of the state.

The tolls, paid by east bank-bound motorists, bring in $21 million annually. Drivers pay either $1 cash or 40 cents with a toll tag.

Source: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/11/crescent_city_connection_tolls_2.html

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