DONOHUE: Yo, Staten Island — shut up already about the Verrazano Bridge toll.

The prospect of having to pay more to ride the subway is not the most annoying part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s upcoming fare and toll hikes. The most annoying part of it all is having to listen to Staten Island’s elected officials bellyache — once again — about the Verrazano toll.

One of two plans for bridge and tunnel tolls being considered by the authority for adoption early next year, along with increases that would impact straphangers, proposes to raise the Verrazano toll a dollar, to $16.

“For decades, revenue from the Verrazano Bridge has been misused, subsidizing other parts of the MTA’s service territory, while Staten Island received crumbs,” Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis said in a press release Thursday. “No one in this city, regardless of residency, should have to pay a $16 toll to cross a bridge.”

Malliotakis, a Republican, and every other elected official from Staten Island boycotted an MTA event on Friday celebrating the Verrazano’s 50th anniversary.

“I have had enough, my constituents have had enough and, until the MTA provides our community with equitable treatment and a reasonable toll structure, there is nothing to celebrate here,” Malliotakis said.

She is correct about one thing: After bridge maintenance costs are covered, toll revenue from the Verrazano, and every other MTA-operated bridge, helps pay for the authority’s network of commuter trains, subways and buses. Without those funds, the price to ride mass transit would skyrocket — and more commuters would be forced to drive, turning the city’s already clogged highways, like the Staten Island Expressway, into one big parking lot.

Staten Island doesn’t have a subway connecting it to the other boroughs. It certainly needs more mass transit options. But Staten Islanders have gotten more than a few breaks.

Tolls at the Verrazano are collected in one direction — westbound into Staten Island — so the actual round-trip cost is half the posted price. For E-ZPass users, the round-trip toll is $10.66. And Staten Island residents get discounts and rebates that allow them to pay just $5.50 to cross and return.

That breaks down to $2.75 per crossing — just 25 cents more than the current base subway fare. That’s not a bad deal for Staten Islanders. Chances are, Staten Islander, no homeless person will be urinating in your car tonight or panhandling in your face on your way to work tomorrow morning — unlike on the subway.

Furthermore, the ferry between Staten Island and Manhattan is free. And one only pays to ride the Staten Island Railway if they board or exit at one of the two stations closest to the ferry. There aren’t turnstiles at any other stop.

Oh, Malliotakis is right on another thing: Nobody should have to pay a $16 toll to cross a bridge — except a local idiot or an out-of-towner. The MTA may likely raise the round-trip toll from $15 to $16, but that only applies to drivers who pay cash because they are too clueless to get E-ZPass. Staten Island rebaters with E-ZPass would pay $5.74 under the proposed increase, which is $2.87 per crossing, an increase of 12 cents per crossing.