CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Travel on the West Virginia Turnpike will become more expensive next month because the highway's governing board voted Wednesday to increase tolls for passenger cars and large trucks for the first time in decades.

The Parkways, Economic Development and Tourism Authority voted unanimously to raise tolls along the 88-mile highway for passenger vehicles from $1.25 to $2 and for large trucks from $4.25 to $6.75. Tolls have not increased since 1981, turnpike officials said.

The cost of a trip from Princeton to Charleston and back will be $12 for a passenger car starting Aug. 1, instead of the current cost of $7.50.

However, the authority also approved steep discounts for people who buy West Virginia E-Z Pass commuter passes. By paying a $5 annual fee for the E-Z Pass, passenger cars will pay $1.30 per toll, and large trucks will pay $5.40. Trucks with electronic commuter passes from other states will pay $5.87.

The authority's vote came after months of public hearings and even legislative debate. Residents and lawmakers from the counties along the highway say the toll is discriminatory.

Board members said they had no choice but to raise toll prices.

"I don't think there's a member of this board who wants to increase this, but we have a responsibility," authority member Cam Lewis said.

That's because the turnpike is facing about $350 million in deferred maintenance costs and it needs about $20 million in additional revenue each year to begin meeting those costs, said general manager Greg Barr.

Tolls are the only way to generate the money, Barr said.

Gov. Joe Manchin called the new toll plan "a responsible decision that gives the Authority the tools they need to bring the road up to standards without overburdening the most frequent users of the highway."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Travel on the West Virginia Turnpike will become more expensive next month because the highway's governing board voted Wednesday to increase tolls for passenger cars and large trucks for the first time in decades.

The Parkways, Economic Development and Tourism Authority voted unanimously to raise tolls along the 88-mile highway for passenger vehicles from $1.25 to $2 and for large trucks from $4.25 to $6.75. Tolls have not increased since 1981, turnpike officials said.

The cost of a trip from Princeton to Charleston and back will be $12 for a passenger car starting Aug. 1, instead of the current cost of $7.50.

However, the authority also approved steep discounts for people who buy West Virginia E-Z Pass commuter passes. By paying a $5 annual fee for the E-Z Pass, passenger cars will pay $1.30 per toll, and large trucks will pay $5.40. Trucks with electronic commuter passes from other states will pay $5.87.

The authority's vote came after months of public hearings and even legislative debate. Residents and lawmakers from the counties along the highway say the toll is discriminatory.

Board members said they had no choice but to raise toll prices.

"I don't think there's a member of this board who wants to increase this, but we have a responsibility," authority member Cam Lewis said.

That's because the turnpike is facing about $350 million in deferred maintenance costs and it needs about $20 million in additional revenue each year to begin meeting those costs, said general manager Greg Barr.

Tolls are the only way to generate the money, Barr said.

Gov. Joe Manchin called the new toll plan "a responsible decision that gives the Authority the tools they need to bring the road up to standards without overburdening the most frequent users of the highway."

Opponents of the toll increase are now weighing their options. Senate Minority Leader Don Caruth said he expects residents to keep the pressure on the authority, and Delegate Clif Moore, D-McDowell, has vowed to block the Ghent toll plaza with his car the day the increase goes into effect.

"The battle is not over at this point," Caruth said.

At the meeting, Caruth said the toll puts the counties along the road at a competitive disadvantage with other West Virginia counties.

"We're being treated as second-class citizens," the Mercer County Republican said. "We have been for a long time, but it's adding insult to injury to vote for a toll increase."

The authority was able to offer the discounts to drivers who buy E-Z Passes by changing the way it pays off the remaining bond debt on Tamarack. Essentially, the turnpike will set aside about $6.8 million, which represents the remainder of the debt on the Tamarack bonds.

By doing so, it frees up about $1.4 million a year in money that had gone to pay down the debt and interest. The board voted to apply the $1.4 million to the needed maintenance costs, enabling a more significant discount than originally planned.

Before the rate increases, West Virginia had fairly low tolls compared to other states, "though not the lowest," said Peter Samuel, Maryland-based editor of Toll Roads News, an online trade publication.

"For drivers driving the length of the turnpike and paying cash, the tolls will be about average for U.S. toll roads at 7 cents a mile," he said in an e-mail Wednesday.

Among the cheaper places to take a toll road are Oklahoma, Massachusetts, New York, Maine and New Jersey's Garden State Parkway, at about 4.3 cents per mile. West Virginia, he said, is now in the middle of the pack.

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Associated Press Writer Vicki Smith contributed to this report.