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04/25/2014 -- Beginning Sunday, Dec. 6, at 3 a.m., the authority will raise E-ZPass rates on its bridges by 75 cents and cash tolls by $1. This will increase the cash toll to $15 and bring E-ZPass rates to $10.50 during off peak hours and to $12.50 for peak travel times. (Staten Island Advance/Hilton Flores)

(Hilton Flores)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The last in a series of annual Port Authority toll hikes will go in effect early Sunday Morning.

Beginning Sunday, Dec. 6, at 3 a.m., the authority will raise E-ZPass rates on its bridges by 75 cents and cash tolls by $1. This will increase the cash toll to $15 and bring E-ZPass rates to $10.50 during off peak hours and to $12.50 for peak travel times.

The hikes will also bring a 25-cent increase to the Port Authority's Staten Island Bridges discount plan for E-ZPass users. The discount for Island drivers will be upped from $6 to $6.25 if at least three trips are taken per month. The toll will remain $10.50 if only one or two trips are taken.

It's the fifth and final increase in the authority's controversial toll hike plan, which has brought annual hikes to the authority's six bridges since 2011 in effort to secure infrastructure funding during the nation's recession for major projects like the World Trade Center site, the Bayonne Bridge's "Raise the Roadway" project, Goethals Bridge's replacement and replacement suspension cables for the George Washington Bridge.

According to the Port Authority, it's not discussing and has not discussed future toll increases beyond those approved in 2011.

Back then, the announcement of implementing annual hikes drew outrage from local officials and drivers -- at that point, the authority had only raised fairs twice during the decade prior.

The authority's three Island spans are receiving more than $2.8 billion for improvements. But the hikes remain contentious; both the Trade Center transit hub and the Raise the Roadway projects overran their budgets.

In the past five years under the plan, the cash tolls on Port Authority bridges raised from $8 to $15. View the authority's toll table below: