[StBernard] Panel Seeks End To Crescent City Connection Toll

[Westley Annis]

Panel Seeks End To Crescent City Connection Toll
Other Recommendations Focus On Education
WDSU.com
updated 6:17 p.m. CT, Mon., Sept . 21, 2009
BATON ROUGE, La. - WDSU .com

Tolls would be eliminated on the Crescent City Connection in a little more
than two years if the state adopts a recommendation issued Monday by a newly
formed advisory panel.



A committee serving as part of the Louisiana Streamlining Commission issued
the report.

It notes that bonds supported by bridge tolls will be paid off by the end of
2012. The panel is calling on the governor and Louisiana Legislature to
eliminate tolls on the Crescent City Connection at that time.

Drivers of most non-commercial vehicles currently pay a toll of one dollar
to cross the bridge when inbound to New Orleans. Outbound traffic is not
charged.

Vehicles outfitted with an automated toll collections tag pay a discounted
fee of 40 cents at the gate.

Other recommendations in the Streamlining Government report focus on public
education.

To keep children in school, the group would require those suspended more
than five days or with an excess of 10 unexcused absences be enrolled in the
Louisiana National Guard Youth Challenge Program.

That program puts at-risk students on a path to receive their high school
equivalency diploma. Participants are placed in a military-style environment
that stresses teamwork and personal growth.

Additionally, the report recommends that the governor, state lawmakers, and
other statewide elected officials be required to serve as a substitute
teacher in a Louisiana public school at least two times a year. Officials
would not be paid for their teaching duties.

The Streamlining Commission is a 10-member board made up of elected
officials and private citizens. The Committee on Efficiencies and
Benchmarking, which drafted the recommendations, is chaired by State
Treasurer John Kennedy and Leonal Hardman, a union leader appointed to the
Commission by Senate President Joel Chaisson.