Toll Bridge Fact Sheet

2022 MOBILE RIVER BRIDGE & BAYWAY PROJECT
ECONOMIC IMPACT FACT SHEET

FACT: A new toll is a de facto tax hike. Enforced tolls and enforced taxes are treated identically by consumers and businesses in the marketplace. Consumers will avoid taxes where practical or constrain spending elsewhere. Businesses will pass the tax hike consumers through price increases and accept the risk of lost sales. The cost of everything increases because a tax on some is a tax on all.

FACT: All tax increases disproportionately harm lower- and middle-class families. Since tolls are taxes, the poorest over-the-bay travelers will be hardest hit. A tax on any is a tax on all.

FACT: The $2.7 billion Mobile River Bridge & Bayway Project has a benefit-cost-ratio less than 1-to-1 and will consume far more economic resources than it produces. The No-Build alternative is a better choice.[1]

FACT: In 2022 dollars, the Bridge alone will have a $7.9 million annual negative impact on the Mobile maritime industry. The economic impact to other sectors (tourism, healthcare, construction, retail trade, etc.) is unknown.[2]

FACT: The economic cost of storm surge risk to both the existing Bayway and the proposed new Bayway is undisclosed and unknown.[3]

FACT: The Traffic & Revenue Study improperly uses arbitrary inflation rates in its forecasts and uses a lower inflation rate for cost growth and a higher inflation rate for tax revenue growth, producing artificially distorted net revenues.[4]

FACT: The Africatown/Plateau Community and Downtown Mobile will face higher traffic congestion costs and increased accident risk cost from drivers avoiding the MRB&B transportation tax.[5]

FACT: Mobile and Baldwin area law enforcement and judicial administrative systems face unknown burdens and unknown costs in enforcing transportation tax payments.

FACT: The project includes bicycle, pedestrian and other recreational features that serve neither the stated project purpose or need and have no identified methods of paying for themselves.[6]

CONCLUSION: The MRB&B Project represents a bad investment for Mobile & Baldwin Counties, the State of Alabama, and the Nation.

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[1] Draft Environmental Impact Statement, 2014, Table 9, indexed to 2022 dollars using CPI 2012-2019 and CPI 2019-2022.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Supplemental Draft EIS, 2019, Appendix G.

[4] I‐10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway – Draft Traffic & Revenue Study Report, May 2018.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision, 2019.