Stop The Toll on the Sakonnet River Bridge: Letter to the RI General Assembly

Dear State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations General Assembly Members.

I would first like to take the time to thank you for reading my letter and do hope you respond to my questions. I do apologize if their are grammatical issues and spelling problems within this letter, for my command of writing is not my strong suit, and hope you look past them and see the points I pose within.

The proposed toll on the Sakonnet River Bridge seem to have crossed my rights as a citizen of the United States by Befitting a larger group of state residents at the expense of the remaining, smaller group of state residents namely Newport residents, Middletown residents, Portsmouth residents Tiverton residents, and Little Compton residents. This unfair tax seems to fall under the Uniformity Clause since such a toll would not be uniform through out the state.

The Sakonnet River bridge being the primary access point for the towns of Little Compton and Tiverton to the rest of the state as there are no other ways to enter unless we cross in through Massachusetts. This means some of the primary users of the bridge would be the Tiverton and Little Compton residents trying to enter the state as well as a major exit to Aquidneck island residents since by placing this toll you would be cutting the Towns of Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth off from any untolled entry to the state. This seems to fall under the Uniformity clause since, even though the toll would charged to anyone who uses the bridge the people it would primarily effect would be the residents of Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth, Tiverton, and Little Compton. The impact would also greatly damage business on Aquidneck island sine people may be more reluctant to make purchases there as well as increase costs for the businesses to acquire their goods.

Since the primary industry for most of the area is Tourism I could only imagine the devastation and depression the proposed tolls would cause. Also I could only imagine the stress this would put on the Newport bars, seeing as a large portion of their customers (Massachusetts residents) will have to spend eight dollars round trip to come drink and spend their money within Rhode Island. This seems to be unfair to the 60,094(as of 210) residents of the area, even though we are nearly .6% of the state should we have to pay such a unbalanced tax by imposing you seem to say we are worthless.

Though from a personal stand point the toll will prevent me from buying anymore of my goods from Rhode Island businesses due to the cost it would incurs to me as a resident of Little Compton. Instead I would spend all my money in Massachusetts where there are no unfair tolls blocking my entrance to their shopping centers. Even with the local discount I would still not cross the bridge since even then it’s still unfair to me a southeastern resident of Rhode Island.

Also as a former football player at Portsmouth High School I remember double sessions in the summer and my mother making four trips a day to ferry me to my practice, so you can see how the discount still does not even the scales. For these reasons I cannot see the uniformity of the toll and see it as an unfair and unjust penalty to only the local Residents. In all truth how would you feel if you where charged whenever you tried leaving your home?

Sincerely,

Dylan Konrad Pauls of Little Compton Rhode Island