The Maryland Transportation Authority will raise tolls for the Bay Bridge and harbor tunnels in two years, part of the ongoing economic fallout caused by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge earlier this year, but the size of the increases aren’t yet known.

MDTA officials originally planned to raise tolls, due in part to inflation, in July 2028, the start of the authority’s fiscal year. But with lost revenue because of the bridge collapse and uncertainty over whether Congress will pay the whole amount to rebuild it, the toll increase will take place in 2027, a spokesperson said.

The size of the increase could depend on Congress’s actions. Asked for more details, a spokesperson wrote in an email that the authority needs to complete “additional analyses” before determining the “exact timing and amount” of the proposed increase.

Typically, the federal government will pay 90% of emergency repair costs in disasters like the Key Bridge collapse; Maryland lawmakers in the House and Senate have put forth a bill asking Congress to pay the entire cost. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse, President Joe Biden pledged to “move heaven and earth” to rebuild the bridge as quickly as possible using only federal funds.

Transportation officials have said the new bridge will cost at least $1.7 billion to rebuild, meaning the state’s contribution under the typical cost-sharing agreements would be at least $170 million.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have expressed concern about having taxpayers nationwide pay the entirety of the cost to rebuild a bridge that generates revenue for the state of Maryland. In the most recent fiscal year, tolls from motorists using the Key Bridge generated upwards of $56 million, according to state records. Officials said they expect to lose $143.9 million in revenue over the period from the collapse to when the bridge is ultimately rebuilt.

“If Congress does not require Maryland to share in the cost of a project like the replacement of the Key Bridge, which will have a revenue source, how can Congress require any other recipient of [emergency] program funding to pay their cost share?” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, said at a hearing last week.

The Key Bridge collapsed just after midnight on March 26 when a container ship, the Dali, lost propulsion and electricity and slammed into one of its support piers. Six people, construction workers who were repairing potholes on the bridge deck, died in the disaster. A seventh worker fell into the water but was rescued.

The loss of toll revenue from the Key Bridge comes at a time when state officials are facing a budget dilemma. Democratic Gov. Wes Moore announced $149 million in proposed budget cuts last week, which came on the heels of massive cuts to the transportation agency budget Moore’s administration proposed in December.

In January, Moore announced he would transfer $150 million from the state’s rainy day fund to avoid most of the transportation cuts for fiscal year 2025, which began this month. It bought the department time, but not much — officials estimate that the state will be roughly $3 billion short for transportation projects, ranging from road repaving to bus maintenance, over the next five years.

A state commission tasked with brainstorming new ways to fund transportation projects began meeting last year — lawmakers passed laws incorporating a couple of their initial recommendations, like higher registration fees for electric vehicles, this year. But officials don’t anticipate those new revenue generators will come anywhere close to filling the shortfall. Statewide, some fear that next year’s legislative session will bring substantial new or adjusted taxes to make up the difference.

Maryland’s budget is required to be balanced each year, and governors and the General Assembly have often shuffled money around to fulfill that requirement. But the long-term budget picture shows the gap widening each year, under pressures such as the ambitious and expensive Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a multiyear program to improve public schools.

Unlike the State Highway Administration or other subagencies of the Maryland Department of Transportation, the MDTA typically pays for its own major construction and maintenance projects because it generates the money to do so through tolls. Currently, those revenues can only be used for MDTA projects. But some have floated the idea of altering that requirement so that tolls can help pay for other statewide transportation projects — and that could drastically alter the MDTA’s future budget outlook.

Maryland last increased tolls in 2013, and then-Gov. Larry Hogan cut those same tolls in 2015.

No matter the budget situation, MDTA officials said they’re prepared to shoulder the cost if Congress fails to act.

“No state, including Maryland, is prepared to cover as large of an unexpected expense as the rebuilding of the Key Bridge,” the authority wrote in a statement. “The Maryland Department of Transportation and the MDTA will continue to work with Governor Moore and our federal delegation to urge Congress to authorize a full 100% federal match for the cost to rebuild this critical piece of our infrastructure system. Should Congress fail to act, the MDTA will move forward with the rebuild under the existing federal cost share.”

Officials also said Congress’ decision would not affect funding for the proposed Red Line, a light rail project slated to connect East and West Baltimore, or the completion of the Purple Line, a 16-mile light rail project in Maryland’s Washington, D.C., suburbs.