SAN FRANCISCO -- Every year 124 million commuters pay a $2 toll to cross the seven state owned bridges in the Bay Area, raising about a quarter of a billion dollars annually.

On March 2, local voters will be asked to dig a little deeper and add another dollar to the toll beginning in July.

"At three dollars this is the best bargain anybody will ever have," said state Sen. Don Perata, who authored the ballot measure. "The reason you should vote for it is, like most people, you travel infrequently on the bridge, so paying a dollar here or there will be very little out of your pocket compared to the convenience that we might generate."

Regional Measure 2 would raise an additional $125 million each year to help pay for public transit -- BART, buses and the ferries.

But many local residents like Ken Stedman -- who heads a group called 'Waste Watchers" -- oppose the measure.

"I'm going to vote no," he said. "They tell these things all the time in these elections. We need this, we need that, we're going to go broke, we're going to go bankrupt, whatever. And the things they say they were going to do, don't happen."

Stedman points to a promise made in 1936 when the Bay Bridge opened and tolls were first collected to pay off construction. By the mid 1950s, the Bay Bridge was paid off, but the tolls remained. The money was used to pay for other transportation projects including maintenance of the other six state owned bridges in the region.

This is not the first time Bay Area voters have been asked to raise bridge tolls. In 1988, voters overwhelmingly approved a measure that boosted the toll from $1 to $2 dollars. That money was used on a variety of transportation projects.

This time, if Measure 2 passes, the money would not be used for construction or maintenance projects. It would be used to pay for the basics of public transportation.