A proposal to toll the last free ferry to Hyde County's Ocracoke is causing alarm among the village's business community.
The N.C. Senate's proposed budget includes a provision that would enact tolls on four ferry routes that are currently free, while increasing tolls on four routes that already have tolls.
As Ride the Wind Surf Shop Owner Bob Chestnut spoke with a reporter Monday, he looked out of his office window overlooking Silver Lake Harbor and watched cars load onto a ferry. The part of the Senate proposal that has Chestnut and others worried involves the now-free ferry to Hatteras, which docks on the northern end of Ocracoke.
Chestnut estimates that somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of his customers are day-trippers, who take a break from the Outer Banks beach they're staying at to visit Ocracoke.
"Any reduction in traffic to Ocracoke is a reduction in the number of customers that come into my door," said Chestnut, who is also president of the Ocracoke Civic and Business Association.
Tucked onto an island between the Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, Ocracoke is accessible only by water and a small airport. The ferry to Hatteras is the only one of three routes that is free and is seen by many locals as a part of North Carolina. Highway 12.
"There's always a free alternative, and that just so happens to be our free alternative," Chestnut said.
Tourists spent nearly $62 million in Hyde County in 2023, the last year for which Visit North Carolina visitor spending data is available.
Local governments in Eastern North Carolina did not receive any notice about the proposed tolls, said Hyde County Manager Kris Cahoon Noble.
Rather than enacting tolls right away, Noble wants to see the General Assembly study what the structure could look like and what impact tolls might have on workers and local economies. Noble points to Ocracoke village as a key reason for legislators to be cautious.
"Why will we experiment with the livelihoods of an entire island of folks? Let's do a little research and let's figure out how this will impact tourism dollars, not only for Hyde County, that needs those tourism dollars, but for the state of North Carolina," Noble said in an interview.
On Ocracoke, Chestnut said, the objection isn't so much to the idea of a toll as to the lack of public consideration about the impact it could have on the village's business community and to what the fee itself should be. The budget also lacked funding for toll-collecting infrastructure and personnel on either Ocracoke or Hatteras, Chestnut said, raising questions about how it could affect overall operations or wait times, especially in the busy summer season.
"There doesn't seem to have been a lot of thought put into it. The bill basically just says we're going to collect $20 for a ferry that's never had a toll collected on it before," Chestnut said.
Proposed tolls
Routes that are currently free that would now be tolled include:
- Aurora to Bayview, where passengers would cost $1, vehicles less than 20 feet would cost $3 and longer vehicles would cost $6.
- Cherry Branch to Minnesott, where passengers would cost $1, smaller vehicles $5 and longer vehicles $10.
- Currituck to Knotts Island, where passengers would cost $1, smaller vehicles $3 and larger vehicles $6.
- Hatteras to Ocracoke, where passengers would cost $1, smaller vehicles $20 and larger vehicles $40.
Those riding in a vehicle would only need to pay the vehicle toll, not the vehicle toll plus the passenger toll.
There are existing tolls on four ferry routes. Here's how those would change under the Senate budget proposal:
- The ferry between Ocracoke and Cedar Island would increase from $15 to $20 for smaller vehicles, while the passenger price would increase from $1 to $2. Larger vehicles would pay $60.
- The ferry between Swan Quarter and Ocracoke would increase from $15 to $30 for smaller vehicles, while the passenger price would increase from $1 to $2. Larger vehicles would pay $60.
- The ferry between Southport and Fort Fisher would increase from $7 to $10 for smaller vehicles, while passenger rates would double from $1 to $2. Larger vehicles would pay $20.
- The Ocracoke Express passenger ferry from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke would double from $7.50 to $15 per person.
Debate in the Senate
The ferry toll provision led to a heated portion of the debate over the Senate's proposed budget two weeks ago, with an eastern North Carolina lawmaker pushing back against the plan.
Sen. Bobby Hanig, a Powells Point Republican, said the Currituck ferry was built to give people living on Knotts Island a route to school without driving through Virginia. The ferry between Minnesott Beach and Cherry Branch was meant to help workers cross the Neuse River to reach the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point without a bridge, Hanig said.
"Our ferries are an extension of our highways and should not be tolled," Hanig said.
Hanig introduced an amendment on the Senate floor that would have removed the new tolls from the budget. The effort failed by a single vote, a procedural step known as tabling the amendment.
The vote over tabling Hanig's amendment provided a rare bit of public drama as the Senate worked through dozens of proposed changes.
At first, Sen. Todd Johnson, a Union County Republican, asked Hanig to consider withdrawing his amendment so the toll conversation could be wrapped into budget debates.
"With all due respect to my friend and colleague, I will not remove the amendment," Hanig said.
Then, Sen. Ralph Hise, a Spruce Pine Republican, asked that the amendment be tabled.
Initial results showed that 23 senators voted to suspend it, with 24 voting to allow it to continue forward.
Just as Lt. Gov and Senate President Rachel Hunt was announcing that the amendment would not be tabled, Sen. Buck Newton rose. The Wilson Republican said he had "punched the wrong button."
That shifted the result, and the toll proposal stayed in the budget.
Speaking after the budget debate, Republican leader Phil Berger said the chamber's transportation chairs believe in the tolls and that the cost per passenger and per vehicle is "significant."
Maintaining the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry route, for instance, costs $126 for each of the 202,628 vehicles it averages and $27 for each of the 935,307 passengers the route averages, according to the General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division.
"What's in the budget strikes me as fairly reasonable. I certainly am open to conversations about how we can address what are perceived to be some problems with it," said Berger, a Rockingham County Republican.
The Senate budget represents a key step but an early one in the budget process.
With the Senate approval, the House is next in considering the budget. House members could approve the budget as written or, more likely, approve a version with some changes.
That would result in differences between the two chambers being negotiated behind closed doors among key members of the House and Senate. From there, it would be sent to Gov. Josh Stein for consideration.
The Senate has proposed adding ferry tolls at least one other time, in 2023, when its budget included tolls on the Aurora, Minnesott and Knotts Island ferries. The House did not include them in its own proposal, and they were dropped from the final budget.
Under Senate rules, Hanig's amendment cannot be introduced in any other form during this legislative session in the chamber. But the language could be stripped from the bill as part of the conference committee negotiations.
