HATTERAS, N.C. — Dozens of drivers waited in line to board the ferry that takes them from Hatteras to Ocracoke on Thursday, a route that during their trip in 2027 could come with a fee to get to and from the island. The North Carolina General Assembly sent the state's $34 billion budget to Gov. Josh Stein's desk on Thursday that includes tolls on all ferry routes.
"There was definitely a sense of inevitability, at least with regard to our routes," said Justin LeBlanc, executive director of the Ocracoke Access Alliance.
LeBlanc has called Ocracoke Island home for more than 15 years and historically island residents have been against tolling the Hatteras to Ocracoke route. But neighbors have come around recently knowing that it could go a long way for the lifeline of the island.
"We really came around to the idea that in order for us to be able to replace these vessels over time, we're going to need to impose a toll on that ferry as well, and we became open and amenable to that, which is a big policy shift for our community," said LeBlanc.
The budget would establish tolls on all ferry routes, including the Hatteras to Ocracoke route for the first time. The tolls are meant to provide funding to help establish and maintain an already aging ferry fleet.
"Ocracoke residents are going to be the only residents of the state of North Carolina that will have to pay to connect to the highway system. The ferry isn't a luxury for us, it's how we get to our doctor's appointments, it's how we get to do larger shopping, like at a hardware store or at a big grocery store, it's how we get to see friends and family that don't live on the island, and so it's more of a necessity for our full-time residents than it is a luxury," said LeBlanc.
In April, as this became a reality, the Ocracoke Access Alliance released its recommendations to state leaders on what the island community would like to see. LeBlanc says disappointment is connected to what they feel is one of the most important of those recommendations: having free access to this route for full-time residents.
"Felt pretty strongly that our longtime full-time residents of the island needed to have some sort of free access to the larger state, and we really stressed that in our request to the General Assembly. While some elements of what we proposed were taken up, that request for full-time residents to have some level of free access was simply ignored," said LeBlanc.
In the legislation, the plan is for there to be a commuter pass offered to full-time residents expected to be $150, along with school buses riding for free. But this is a conversation that the alliance hopes to continue to discuss with state transportation leaders.
"$150 a year is not a ton of money for a lot of households, but for some households it is. We have a lot of low-income households on this island that folks who's household income is not substantial or significant, and for those folks 150 bucks is a bite in the wallet. We're really sort of feel frustrated for those kinds of households," said LeBlanc.
Though that's disappointing, LeBlanc shares there are positives that the alliance sees in the proposal. Especially a spending plan to allocate more than $101.1 million to ferry operations for 2026-2027.
"The level of funding that they provided for operation and maintenance of the Ferry Division is a historic high, and we're very pleased with that, and very grateful to the General Assembly for providing that funding," said LeBlanc.
LeBlanc hopes that in the long run, this all goes toward making sure the future of a vital ferry system can only improve.
"Most vessel replacement costs get covered by federal grants, and so tolling only will cover a portion thereof, but it's an important portion. If we want to get to the point where we can start replacing the fleet and having a long-term sustainable ferry fleet, tolling is a necessary part of the solution," said LeBlanc.
Right now we don't know the exact plan for how much the fee will be on the ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke and vice versa. Those fees will be set by the state Board of Transportation but are expected to start in January 2027. LeBlanc also shares that is going to be a tall order for the North Carolina Department of Transportation to tackle.
"Assuming Governor Stein signs it into law, the deadline for implementing tolls is this January, six months from now. The ferry division is already telling us that that's utterly impossible, that there's just no way they can effectively develop, design, and implement a tolling system on the Hatteras route within six months. They're going to need much more time than that, and so at a minimum, that's something that's going to have to be addressed, is the timeline for implementation," said LeBlanc.
This also comes while State Auditor Dave Boliek's office is actively auditing the ferry system with that report due in January 2027. The North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division provided this statement to News 3 when asked about the ferry tolls on Thursday:
"The Ferry Division is not commenting on the pending budget bill at this point, as we continue to monitor its progress through the legislative process."
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