Any plan to raise tolls along the Maine Turnpike should also include proposals to increase revenue from traffic on I-295 from Portland to Gardiner.

The executive director of the Maine Turnpike Authority, Paul Violette, informed the Legislature’s Transportation Committee that tolls would rise 23 percent by February, to offset steep declines in automobile traffic and increasing maintenance costs. The turnpike authority board voted Thursday morning to plan for the hike.

Such an increase was likely unavoidable, though gasoline’s declining price during recent weeks may improve conditions slightly, if drivers who had forsaken turnpike travel due to high costs return.

There’s no guarantee, however.

But, as with any revenue downturn for any government or agency, raising taxes, fees or, in this case, tolls to offset this decrease in revenue is only one solution. Areas where new revenue can be found should be explored.

For the turnpike authority and state government, one area is clear: I-295.

We’ve long criticized the inequity of tolling for using I-295 versus the turnpike. For $1.20 (60 cents each for entrance and exit), drivers can use I-295 to avoid Lewiston-Auburn entirely, skip toll plazas in Gray and West Gardiner, and travel northward faster.

(And Down East magazine, in its November issue, includes – as one of the 25 things Mainers should know – a handy tip for avoiding the 60-cent fee from the turnpike to I-295 in Portland, cutting the price in half.)

This discount is a disincentive for using the turnpike. The closing of the Lewiston-area service plaza, also this week, is another reason to avoid the turnpike. An under-utilized highway is now an under-utilized highway with fewer services.

Plans for putting tolls on I-295 have failed to gain traction; plans to equalize tolling along the turnpike have also flopped. It seems these proposals, at the time they were considered, lacked an urgency to drive them.

A prospective 23-percent toll increase in February is an urgent concern. For a state now embattled over whether to raise levies of a few pennies on bottles of beer or cans of soda, this stark news from the turnpike authority should, at least, raise a few hackles.

The two highways are managed by different agencies (the Maine Department of Transportation oversees I-295) but both are suffering from similiar ills: maintenence costs going up, revenue going down.

We’re no fans of raising tolls, unless all possible options for revenue are explored.

The potential revenue from I-295 is too lucrative to ignore at this time.