New Hampshire’s 10-year transportation plan will be driving forward, following the NH legislature’s vote to override a veto of the plan by Governor Kelly Ayotte. The vote puts an end to a longstanding dispute over toll increases.

With bipartisan support, the New Hampshire legislature voted Aug. 19 to override Governor Kelly Ayotte’s veto of HB 2026, which contains the state’s biannual transportation plan. The bill includes an increase for toll users without New Hampshire E-ZPass transponders beginning Jan. 1, 2027. The plan allows anyone to obtain a free E-ZPass transponder between Dec. 1, 2026 and June 29, 2027.

A group of industry contractors including the Associated General Contractors of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Good Roads Association, American Council of Engineering Companies of New Hampshire, and Aggregate Manufacturers of New Hampshire applauded the New Hampshire Legislature for overriding Ayotte’s veto of HB 2026. The legislation, they say, guarantees long-term funding and strategic planning for critical highway, bridge, transit, and municipal infrastructure projects across the state over the next decade.

Alex Koutrabas, executive vice president of Associated General Contractors of New Hampshire, says delays to the transportation plan increase costs down the road and can lead to safety issues. “Ayotte has been fairly consistent,” Koutrabas says. “She doesn’t want any toll increases. We tried in the GACIT process in the fall via the executive council to increase tolls but there was a strong majority against this.”

GACIT, the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Intermodal Transportation, consists of the state's five Executive Councilors and the Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT). The commission helps draft and review the state's Ten-Year Transportation Improvement Plan.

Former NH DOT Commissioner William Cass, who was part of the latest 10-year transportation plan process, told Business NH Magazine this spring, “The biggest challenge we face is that costs keep going up, and our revenue does not.” Cass explained that if costs go up and delays happen, it’s typically the projects at the end of the plan that get bumped.

The state’s highway system is divided into two parts. State-owned roads and bridges are primarily funded through the highway fund, which draws revenue from the state gas tax as well as motor vehicle registration fees, federal grants and other sources. The turnpike system, which includes major highways such as I-93 and I-95, operates as a self-funded enterprise supported by toll revenue.

New Hampshire’s gas tax was last permanently increased in 1991. Today, based on the consumer price index, the base tax of 18 cents per gallon is worth roughly 8 cents in real terms after inflation. A temporary gas tax increase of 4.2 cents approved in 2014 to help fund the widening of I-93 as well as hundreds of other bridge and road projects will sunset after those projects are paid off and is worth about 3 cents today.

Tolls face a similar erosion. The last toll increase on I-93 occurred in 2007, and the last increase on I-95 in Hampton came in 2009. Adjusted for inflation, those increases are worth significantly less today.

The toll increases in the current 10-year plan will generate between $65 and $70 million per year and allow a number of projects around the state to move forward, including interstate projects at the Bow-Concord junction on I-93 and projects in Nashua and Manchester on I-293, Koutrabas says. He says exits 6 and 7 on I-293 were designed for traffic in the 1950s and fail to meet current traffic volume needs. “There are no auxiliary lanes in those areas and congestion is really bad,” he says. “It used to be there would be backups on Fridays and Sundays, but now it’s almost every day.”

Earlier this year, NHDOT and GACIT cut roughly $300 million from the transportation plan, removing or deferring dozens of projects across the state. Thirty-four projects were eliminated entirely, 15 were delayed, and no new major projects were added in the outer years of the plan.

The New Hampshire House voted 292 to 25 to override Ayotte’s veto of HB 2026 and the Senate voted 24 to 0, unanimously overriding the veto.

In a statement, Gov. Ayotte doubled down on her opposition to raising taxes. “Make no mistake of it, this is a tax increase on Granite Staters,” she said. “If you pay cash, you will pay double. If you didn’t get a new transponder when you moved here, you will pay double…Politicians will always want to spend more of your money, but when they double costs, it makes life less affordable and crushes working families.”

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