Most of the estimated 1,000 people who crammed into Perryville High School Thursday for the hearing on Susquehanna River bridge toll increases are upset that the state wants to do away with the cut-rate AVI decal program for the Hatem Bridge on Route 40.

The AVI decal allows unlimited trips across the bridge for $10 a year. The state wants to replace the decal with what it calls a discounted E-ZPass rate for commuters that will start at $36 a year in October and increase to $72 a year in 2013.

In addition, people will have to buy the E-ZPass transponder and pay the monthly E-ZPass administrative surcharge, which is $1.50 or $18 a year, almost double what the AVI decal costs.

The residents, community leaders and elected officials who did have an opportunity to speak during the nearly five-hour hearing Thursday, told a Maryland Transportation Authority panel the toll increase will unfairly target residents who are already economically disadvantaged.

They also said residents of counties such as Montgomery, Baltimore and Prince George's are getting a break on the backs of people in Harford and Cecil and the other Eastern Shore counties.

The hearing ultimately went until about 11:40 p.m. Originally, 120 people signed up to testify. Seventy-three residents and 24 public officials ended up speaking.

Joe Hudson, of Perryville, said the increased traffic into Port Deposit from people trying to avoid the tolls by using Route 222 to Conowingo Dam will one day kill a child playing in the street.

"I am the proud father of seven potential taxpayers, maybe not of Maryland," he said. "Are you going to show up at the funeral and tell the child's family, 'This is the price of doing business in Maryland?'"

Hudson said the increase would unfairly burden Cecil residents.

"When you say 'dollars,' I say, 'two gallons of milk'… This is a taxation on one group of people, not on the whole state," he said. "These bridges were built to serve the people, not so the people could serve the state. The best solution is no tolls at all."

State Sen. E.J. Pipkin, who represents parts of northern Cecil and the rest of the Upper Eastern Shore, said he was very proud of his constituents in Cecil who came to the hearing.

"In Montgomery County, only 18 people showed up," he said, as the audience booed at the mention of that county.

Pipkin said the proposed toll hike is simply too much.

"How many of you got a raise last year of 300 percent?" he asked the crowd. "The proposal here will cost your family an additional $1,000 a year after taxes… That doesn't make sense. That's why you are here tonight, because it touched a nerve."

Pipkin said he has tried to reform the MdTA with numerous bills.

"This agency is broken," he added.

Havre de Grace Mayor Wayne Dougherty and city council members Jim Miller, Fred Cullum and Barbara Wagner said they unanimously approved a special resolution Monday night proclaiming that the residents of Havre de Grace reject the MdTA proposal and the increase in tolls, and urge all citizens to contact the MdTA andGov.Martin O'Malley to ask for the AVI decals to remain in place.

The MdTA has another hearing scheduled for June 27 at the Havre de Grace Community Activity Center on Lewis Lane.

Judging from the turnout in Perryville Thursday, which caused many people to have to stand in the halls or wait in the cafeteria because they couldn't all fit into the auditorium, the MdTA may want to consider its choice of venues in Havre de Grace.

Other speakers Thursday said the toll proposal will cut them off from medical treatment as well as business-related, family, religious and other economic needs in Harford or Baltimore counties.

Jacque Broomell, of Colora, said she lives on a small farm and has to take her daughter and grandchildren across the bridge for medical treatment.

"I am here to help you understand how this will impact my family," she said. "We have to go to Harford County at times for that [medical] care."

Broomell said replacing the AVI decal with a more expensive transponder will greatly affect her ability to make such trips.

"I know the amount probably seems small to you. It is not to us. We count every penny every week," she said.

Kathy Kunda, coordinator of the Business & Education Partnership Advisory Council that works with Cecil County Public Schools, said school employees and students are already severely affected by the tolls.

She pointed out the Cecil schools' athletics department pays $500 per year just to transport teams to Harford County.

The Cecil school system also has 457 full-time employees who live in Harford, she said.

Kunda also asked the MdTA to consider a waiver for employees who have to attend "these expensive meetings that we are mandated to go to."

Paula Gilley, a Cecil County Realtor, who spoke on behalf of the county's board of Realtors, said the bridge will make it even less likely that BRAC employees will move to the area.

"Most of them are renting because they are trying to decide if they even want to live here," she said. "The citizens of Harford and Cecil counties have well earned the free use of this bridge."

Bob Tibbs, a prominent Harford farmer, said the toll hikes will affect the farming community.

"When I take my truck and trailer across the bridge, it will be $36," he said. "Now I just can't think that every farmer in Harford County will be able to survive, when I go across this bridge with cattle."

Tibbs said people have relied on the decals to help them do their work.

"It is a livelihood," he said. "AVI decals are a rural lifeline. That is all we have known for my 70-plus years."

Addressing the notion that Maryland tolls are some of the lowest in the nation, Tibbs replied, "I would like to keep them that way."

The MdTA provided fliers that offered a rebuttal to some residents' arguments, such as that the bridge has been paid for and toll increase is only needed to pay for the InterCounty Connector in Montgomery County.

"The MdTA's highways and unique bridges and tunnels continue to require an investment of millions of dollars each year to operate, maintain and rehabilitate the facilities - they are never really 'paid for,'" the flier states. "Hundreds of millions of dollars are required to maintain and rehabilitate the MdTA's network of aging bridges, tunnels, and turnpikes."