Drivers, get an extra quarter ready. Tolls across the state will go up Oct. 22, by vote of the Executive Council yesterday. The toll increases, which passed on a 4-1 vote, will pay for the repair and replacement of 14 bridges and road construction in the cash-strapped turnpike system for the next 10 years.

Tolls will rise from 75 cents to $1 at the tollbooths on Interstate 93 in Hooksett and the Everett Turnpike in Bedford. Rates will increase from 50 cents to 75 cents in booths on the Spaulding Turnpike in Dover and Rochester. On Interstate 95, the main toll will go from $1 to $1.50, and the side toll plazas will see a bump from 50 cents to 75 cents. EZ-Pass users will still get a 30 percent discount on all tolls.

Gov. John Lynch backed the toll increase plan, originally proposed by Interim Transportation Commissioner Chuck O'Leary. "For me, it's all about public safety," said Lynch, a Democrat.

"We have a constitutional responsibility here. I intend to exercise mine. I'm satisfied with the commissioner's proposal," said Councilor Ray Burton, a Bath Republican. "It's something we, the governor and council, have a responsibility to do."

Toll rates were last increased in 1989.

The lone opposing vote came from Councilor Deb Pignatelli, a Nashua Democrat who said she was looking for relief for Merrimack drivers. She called the town "landlocked with tolls," saying residents can't drive around town without paying.

"I have worked long and hard to try to come up with a proposal that would treat Merrimack fairly," she said.

Pignatelli proposed effectively shuttering tolls at two Merrimack exits. Councilors voted to table that plan until Oct. 31, when the council will meet in Merrimack. Lynch said he backed "some relief" for Merrimack, and Pignatelli said she hoped for more support later this month.

The other last-minute change yesterday was an increase proposed by Councilor Beverly Hollingworth. She proposed cutting the toll hike O'Leary had proposed at the Hampton side plazas, from $1 to 75 cents, while adding a 50-cent increase to the main toll on Interstate 95, to a total of $1.50.

Hollingworth said that the increase at the main plaza would hit "people passing through our state" on Interstate 95 from Massachusetts to Maine. Meanwhile, she said, the larger increase in the side plazas would have been too hard on New Hampshire residents and discourage people from carpooling, since there is a Park-and-Ride facility right off the side exit.

She said she came up with the proposal after holding meetings in her district.

"The vast majority of people of the state are very supportive," Hollingworth said. "They want to make sure that it's fair."

O'Leary praised Hollingworth's proposal. "I think it does provide more equity, and I can't refute it," he said. "This is a very brave lady to suggest an increase in tolls."

The original toll proposal was projected to raise an extra $16 million a year, enough to fund $200 million in bonds to pay for top priority projects for the next 10 years, according to the Department of Transportation. With the additional toll increase at Interstate 95, the proceeds will be $24 million a year.

The extra money could either be used to pay off bonds faster or to pay for additional road repairs, O'Leary and Lynch said. The projects next on the list are bridges in Newington and Dover and the widening of the Everett Turnpike in Bedford and Merrimack, O'Leary said.

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