After 15 Years, Ferry Tolls Remain Hot Topic

By Larry Summers | Retired Vietnam Veteran

NC Ferry Tolls are proposed to start on 1 January 2027. The frequent attempts to impose new ferry tolls have been a volatile issue in Eastern North Carolina since the initial push, which came in the 2011 NC Budget Bill. It ultimately failed.

We are now in 2026! Please consider attending a “Public Listening Session” from 6-8 PM on 1 September at Beaufort County Community College, and on 2 September at the Pamlico Community College’s Delamar Center. This may be our only opportunity to directly impact the planned tolling on the two ferry crossings that primarily affect our residents.

These routes are the Cherry Branch/Minnesott Beach Ferry and the Aurora/Bayview Ferry. They are both part of NC Highway 306. This route came from an idea born in 1930 as the primary highway to connect Beaufort County to Craven County, through rural Pamlico County, in order to create some economic vitality!

The Ferry Division funding actually drops from $110 million in the 2024-25 state budget to $101 million in the 2026-27 budget. An NCDOT Study Report from 2024 titled “Ferry Division Vessel Replacement Study” states, on page 67, that the 2024 State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) did not allocate any available revenue to a ferry vessel replacement fund!

That is particularly disturbing since on page 70 of the same document, it indicates that “federal funds can provide up to 85 percent of a project’s cost.” Similar funding shortfalls are found throughout the new state budget, and appear to be, largely self-inflicted.

The North Carolina Budget and Tax Center publication “The Reality of Tax Cuts” states that: “After more than a decade of cuts to income tax rates, North Carolinians across the state are feeling the negative effects of lost revenue, an upside-down tax code, and growing inequality.”

According to the Fiscal Research Branch of the NC General Assembly, the Individual Income Tax Rate in 2014 was 5.8 percent. That rate will be at 3.49 percent in 2027. The Corporate Income Tax rate was at 6 percent in 2014 and will be at 2.2 percent in 2027. One estimate I have seen is that, with these cuts, the state will lose $900 million of potential income in 2027. Most of the benefit in the tax cuts accrue to corporate taxpayers and high-income individual taxpayers.

In 2012, a Ferry Division representative stated it would likely cost 20 to 30 percent of the income generated to just pay for the collection of the tolls! That figure, did not include legacy costs, such as retirement and related health care. These ferries are vital links for goods, services, school access and Interscholastic sports between the three counties.

The ferries also provide major commuter routes for workers and, access for veterans to VA Services at the MCAS base at Cherry Point, and in the towns of Havelock and Morehead City. Now North Carolina wants to establish a new system of tolls.

The only toll (tax?) specified in the recent State Budget Bill is an annual pass for $150. Even with this pass you might not find the ferry operating when expected. Maintenance problems frequently occur, which results in an “Amended Schedule.” At Minnesott Beach/Cherry Branch, that usually means the ferry runs just once per hour instead of once every 30 minutes.

The development of any new tolls will then be up to the NC Department of Transportation, in coordination with the Joint (NC House and Senate) Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee. In 2013, an NC DOT toll / tax proposal suggested $10 per vehicle (less than 20 feet) and $2 per passenger each way on the Bayview-Aurora Ferry. Further south on the Cherry Branch- Minnesott Ferry, the figures were $4 per vehicle and $1 per passenger. An annual pass, would have been $200 for the Bayview- Aurora Ferry and the $150 for the Cherry Branch-Minnesott Ferry.