My question exactly!
The toll money doesn't just go for maintenance of the bridge. It goes to pay the members of the Golden Gate Bridge District, and they also run a bus system, and, I think, ferries. From what I've gathered over the years, they are soaking the drivers to subsidize the buses and ferries. I'm sure if I'm wrong about that, someone will correct me.
Toll taker pension plans, Toll taker health and dental coverage, Toll taker peer counseling and recreation center, Toll taker administration oversight committee expenses. Painters, Iron workers, Cone putter downers, Cone pickum uppers I and II, The guys that sit in a truck looking at other guys standing around. Seagull fecal removal squads. Fecal removal squad observers. Janitors, accountants, personnel directors, Substance abuse mitigation counseling committee members, Body bag purchasing agents, Water hose operators, water hose coil up technicians....
I was going to say that.
"In November 1930, the proposal for a $35,000,000 Bond issue was submitted to the voters of the counties comprising the district, and the issue carried overwhelmingly. Bidding plans were prepared, and first bids received in July 1931. A taxpayers suit followed before the word was awarded, and a final court decision favoring the district was given in July 1932. On January 5, 1933, actual construction of the Bridge was begun."
So, a 35 million dollar bond in 1930 hasn't been paid off yet?
Also:
Currently, 50 percent of bus and ferry operations are funded by Bridge tolls, with another 30 percent coming from transit fares, and the remainder being met by federal and state subsidies. While many Bay Area counties have enacted local sales taxes to support public transit, Marin and Sonoma counties have not. Further, the Golden Gate Bridge District does not have the authority to levy taxes. Therefore, the use of surplus Bridge toll revenue has been the only local means available to support financial shortfalls of the operation of the District's bus and ferry services.
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So the tolls are used to pay for Mass Transit that is going broke...got it.
You, of all people, should already know the answer to that question: The money is needed to subsidize mass transit systems run by the Bridge District, whether the ferries that they promised would run as hydrofoils (but never did), or the bus system in Marin County, it's mass transit that is sinking the GG Bridge District.
You have impaled yourself on your own petard.
They are running a deficit because, about 1970, the directors were about to become unemployed by virtue of the last of the bonds being paid off. So the directors, in their infinite wisdom, bought the commuter bus service from Greyhound and contracted to build a fleet of ferry boats. Bottom line: the bridge is a cash cow that subsidizes two money losing transit modes.