State and local officials spoke out against the possibility of a new toll plaza on Interstate 93 by the Massachusetts border with one town selectman calling the measure “ill conceived.”

“I understand the state’s revenue is down because of the economic times. We’re having the same problem in town on a smaller scale,” said Salem Selectman Arthur Barnes. “It doesn’t make sense to me that raising new taxes is the way to work out of an economic slowdown.”

While State Transportation Commissioner George Campbell has said the proposed $2 toll on the southbound lane of I-93 is likely three or four years away and the revenues raised would go toward funding the highway’s $800 million rebuilding project, Selectman Everett McBride believes the extra cost would be a deterrent for people planning to come to New Hampshire.

“For recreational purposes and any other way you look at it, it would deter people from coming,” McBride said. “Any time you present a fee or a tax, it deters people. It would be a way to reduce recreational opportunities for people in New Hampshire.”

Mary Griffin, state representative for District 4, said she would rather see Campbell focusing on how to keep the roads clear and safe during the winter months than on how to increase taxes on motorists going back and forth across the state border. Griffin believes that forcing drivers to spend an additional $2 on every trip across the border would have a “drastic” effect on the local economy.

“Two dollars is too much. I don’t know why we’re adding something like that. People are having a tough time getting along. Things are really tough,” Griffin said. “I’m against all taxes. I think we’ve been taxed out of the state already.”

At the Salem Rest Area and Welcome Center, reactions among commuters and motorists ranged from outrage to acceptance.

“If it was there I’d pay it. The money’s got to come from someplace,” said John Lacquere, who has spent the past 20 years commuting across the border to his job at Manchester Community College. “It’s just an economic thing. Nothing is free.”

Frank Caeteruici, a salesman who crosses the border a couple of times a week, worried that the southbound tolls would slow his commute and said the state should look to either finding alternative ways to fund highway projects or increase mass transit options to Massachusetts.

“That type of infrastructure costs should be incumbent on the state as a whole, not just the individual travelers,” he said. “Just make it a state thing, like the gas tax.”

Judy Murray, a skier from Massachusetts who likes to hit the slopes once a week, agreed with the proposed tolls.

“Times are hard,” she said. “Of course, I don’t use (I-93) often.”

According to Barnes, even if the state put tolls on the highway, motorists familiar with the area would know how to circumvent the plaza, most likely by getting off in Salem and taking Route 28 across the border. A toll plaza would mean increased traffic congestion in an already busy section of town, he said.

“Those who really know the area would run Route 28, which is parallel to I-93, and that would bypass the tolls for them,” Barnes said. “I guess I’ll be taking back roads until I get on the highway.”