Thruway toll hike ‘needed,’ Cuomo says

We need people to attend this meeting and voice their disgust. Do not just email comments, the public outrage has to be shown.

I think we are going to find out that a lot of this lays in the laps of the Albany legislators. They continue to dump ownership of roads on the NYSTA so funding will come from tolls and not taxes already paid for roads.

Proposal could raise consumer prices

ALBANY – Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Friday that a toll hike may be needed for the state Thruway because tolls “haven’t gone up in a long time.”

But tolls were raised as recently as 2010 – and have gone up in four of the past seven years.

The Thruway Authority has proposed a 45 percent toll hike on large trucks as a way to raise $90 million a year – a move business groups say will raise consumer prices on the huge array of goods shipped to stores and marketplaces in New York. The agency, in going to the bond market in June with a $1.1 billion borrowing, said it saw “no reason” that its toll rate hike will be substantially changed.

In a public radio interview Friday on The Capital Pressroom, Cuomo said he understands people are opposed to the toll hike, but said an increase may be needed to keep the Thruway “solvent.”

“The Thruway has to be financially capable,” Cuomo said. He said he has asked Thruway officials to come up with ways to “minimize any toll increases that we’re going to have to make,” but did not, again, give his position on the specific 45 percent toll hike plan.

Thruway tolls in 2005 were raised 25 percent on passenger vehicles and 35 percent for commercial users. Cash tolls went up 10 percent in 2008. Also in 2008, two annual 5 percent hikes were imposed – taking effect in 2009 and 2010.

The governor’s comments about the Thruway tolls came on the same day he called for a review of a toll hike plan – announced a week ago by his advisors – for a proposed new Tappan Zee Bridge project. The new span, across the Hudson River between Westchester and Rockland counties, is projected to cost at least $5 billion.

His advisors recently said the costs would lead to a $14 toll on the new span. Cuomo on Friday said that is too high.

A growing number of state lawmakers have been publicly opposed to the 45 percent toll hike plan.

The latest, Sen. Patrick Gallivan, an Erie County Republican, said in a letter to the head of the Thruway Authority that the increase “will be detrimental to our still-recovering state economy.”

Noting Thruway vehicle traffic is off 10 percent since 2005 while expenses have risen 20 percent at the agency in the same time period, Gallivan said he found it “unlikely that there are no efficiency or downsizing options” that could be undertaken to avoid the toll increase.

While Thruway officials have insisted a toll increase is coming, the agency’s first of three scheduled hearings into the matter will be at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Central Library, One LaFayette Square in Buffalo.

via Thruway toll hike ‘needed,’ Cuomo says – Albany – The Buffalo News.