The last day for the Cross Bay Bridge resident rebate program is July 22, MTA Bridges and Tunnels officials announced this week.

The free ride across the Cross Bay Bridge is scheduled to come to an end on July 22 at midnight as residents will now be required to pay $1.13 for each of the first two trips across the bridge. Subsequent trips, however, will remain free of charge. Effective Friday, July 23 at 12:01 a.m., the Cross Bay Bridge Resident Rebate program, as a result of service cuts instituted by the MTA to help close a nearly $800 million budget deficit, will officially end.

The first two trips taken on each E-Z Pass tag between 12:01 a.m. and midnight on any given day will be charged a resident rate of $1.13 per trip. However, after the first two trips, all other Cross Bay Bridge crossings on the same tag on the same day will be free of charge. Each E-Z Pass tag on an account (up to four allowed per account) will not be charged more than a total of $2.26 during a 24-hour period between 12:01 a.m. and midnight.

Rockaway and Broad Channel residents have enjoyed the resident rebate program, which has enabled them to traverse the Cross Bay Bridge free of charge since 1998. This was the second time in two years that the MTA attempted to terminate the program in an effort to save $3.6 million annually.

Democratic District Leader Lew M. Simon says he is in the process of organizing a march across the bridge in the upcoming weeks to protest the elimination of the Cross Bay Bridge resident rebate program.