Can't Release Port Forward On Local Machine

I'm using "ssh -L" port binding to access my server. I'm binding the "localhost" to port 9999 which then connects to port 80 on my server (ISP blocks ports on me so this is my workaround). All works well unless I don't exit the ssh connection properly (port binding on the local machine apparently doesn't tear down). If I try to reestablish the connection port 9999 is still being bound on my local machine. I can release it by rebooting the local machine or killing sshd and then I can reestablish the connection. Is there a clean way to just unbind this port when I screw up and don't exit the ssh connection properly?

This reason is probably that you have a forwarded connection still active. Web browsers may hang on to connections if they are using HTTP 1.1. If you cannot or forgot to break the http connection first, what you should do is exit the ssh connection with ~. That will break the connection as well as forwarded connections. If you didn't do that then at least kill ssh (not sshd) with HUP, which will allow it to clean up.