ALDOT asks Mobile County to certify tax exemption for Mobile River Bridge; agency cites $3.2 billion estimate and $2.50 passenger-car toll parameter

ALDOT and associated project counsel appeared before the Mobile County Commission to request that the county issue a certificate of tax exemption for the Mobile River Bridge project and to answer commissioners’ questions about cost, tolling and financing.

A project representative and counsel told the commission the packet included statutes they regard as controlling and that, under their reading, the exemption is mandatory for the state bridge authority’s project. "Based on the prior existing statute... it's got pretty binding, nondiscretionary language... that a state agency is required to get a tax exemption like this," counsel said.

Edwin Perry, ALDOT Southwest Region project director, told commissioners the project remains on a planning estimate of roughly $3.2 billion and that the toll parameters adopted by the Mobile and Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization point to a $2.50 passenger-car toll. "We're still in the budget of 3,200,000,000.0," Perry said, and noted that tolling parameters used for planning were shared in earlier procurement materials.

Perry said the state is working through necessary financing and is in active conversations with the U.S. Department of Transportation's Build America Bureau on a TIFIA loan that the project team expects to resolve in the coming months. He estimated the TIFIA decision to be several months away and said work packages could begin before the end of the year as the project moves toward construction; the financial plan has been built around a roughly five-year construction period.

Commissioners pressed for clarity on toll-setting authority and timing; ALDOT said toll parameters reflected MPO decisions and that final tolls remain subject to the agency's financial structuring and approvals. Officials also said companion local jurisdictions (the City of Mobile and Daphne) have taken or are taking similar steps on the exemption request and that Baldwin County planned to consider the matter as well.

No formal vote on the tax-exemption certificate was recorded at the conference meeting; ALDOT and counsel provided statutes cited in the packet and committed to follow up with any additional legal clarifications requested by the commission.