State Rep. Paul Tine, along with other primary sponsors, filed a bill Wednesday that would eliminate ferry tolls, allow concessions and advertising on ferries and appropriate $13.85 million for capital expenditures associated with the ferry system for the 2016-2017 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

State Sen. Bill Cook, a Republican and Beaufort County resident, plans to introduce a similar bill today. He’s introduced similar bills in recent years.

House Bill 1002, known as the Ferry System Stabilization Act, passed on its first reading and was sent to the House’s standing Transportation Committee. If that committee gives a favorable report on the bill, it would go to the House’s standing Appropriations (for transportation) Committee. The bill calls for removing all existing tolls charged by the ferry system, effective July 1. It also repeals other legislative action regarding imposition of ferry tolls, and it provides for reimbursing people who pre-paid toll charges or bought commuter passes for use on or after July 1.

Last month, before the bill was filed, the House Select Committee on Strategic Transportation Planning and Long Term Funding Solutions called for the legislature to eliminate the ferry tolls. That panel, of which Tine is a member, has met eight times since December to discuss transportation-related issues. Tine also serves on the House’s transportation and appropriations committees.

“This is a committee suggestion, a committee bill. … We met during the interim (between sessions). We actually visited down in Hyde County. We went to the landing areas there, and a bunch of folks came from all over the state, different representatives,” Tine said, adding that the bill is similar to other ferry-related proposals introduced in the House in recent years.

“As for getting it to move … I know that the House Appropriations for Transportation (panel) cares. They’ve made it a priority. I’ve been able to work some with the Senate members over the interim, and I hope we can come to a resolution on this,” Tine said.

In recent years, increasing tolls on existing ferry routes (such as Swan Quarter to Ocracoke) and adding tolls on other ferry routes (such as the Aurora-Bayview ferry) have been debated and acted on by the North Carolina General Assembly, where legislators have gone back and forth on the issue. Area legislators have opposed increasing existing ferry tolls and creating new ferry tolls, saying the ferry system is an extension of the state’s highway system.

The $13.85 million would be an annually recurring appropriation to “be used for the rehabilitation and replacement of vessels and infrastructure at the North Carolina State Shipyard and the system terminals,” according to the bill. Money earned from concessions, advertising and naming rights for any ferry, ferry route and ferry facility may be used to help pay for replacing ferries. The $13.85 million would be in addition to the approximately $40 million already spent each year on the ferry system.

The bill calls for eliminating a recent cap on state funding for light-rail transit projects.

Cook said his bill also calls for eliminated ferry tolls. There are differences between HB1002 and the bill Cook intends to file.

“It asks for $23 million … this year, excuse me, every year for ferry replacement. In the past, I’d only ask for money that would go to refurbish the boats,” Cook said. “We have the largest ferry system (see note at end of article) in the country, but it’s a vital system to our people here in the east. It’s just like a road. Folks don’t toll roads very often, and I don’t think you ought to toll our ferries either.”

North Carolina has the second-largest state-run ferry system in the nation, according to several sources.