Oct 10, 2008 3:53 pm US/Eastern
New Jersey Approves Toll Hikes On Turnpike, GSP
CBS 2's Magee Hickey contributed to this report.
TRENTON (CBS) ―
It's going to cost more to drive on New Jersey's toll roads.
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority heard final
public comments Friday before voting to raise
tolls in two phases on the Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. The first hike
comes in December, and the second comes in 2012.
Governor Corzine indicated Thursday he would sign off on the proposed
increases, which have been scaled back from an earlier proposal.
The current plan raises tolls on both roads this year and again in 2012, and
gives off-peak discounts to E-ZPass customers, truckers, senior citizens and
those who drive fuel-efficient cars.
Opposition to the increases has come from many quarters, and those were represented
at Friday's hearing.
Gail Toth, executive director of the New Jersey Motor Truck Association, which
represents truckers in New Jersey,
said the increases will hurt trucking companies already fighting high gas
prices and a weakened economy.
"If you're paying $8 extra per truck and you have a fleet of 100 trucks,
that's an extra $800 per day," she said. "How many small businesses
can absorb that?"
A drive along the full length of the Turnpike,
which currently costs $6.45, will more than double to $13.75 by 2012.
Dennis Brady, a Matawan resident, said he has seen traffic increase steadily in
his neighborhood as commuters seek to avoid toll roads, and envisioned the situation
worsening.
Some of the most pointed comments came from Zohar Laor, 39, a software engineer
from Edison who addressed Kolluri directly.
"Just because you can go home and look in the mirror and say, 'I didn't
raise it as much as I could have,' that doesn't let you off the hook," he
said.
Kolluri defended the increases and said they would be used to fund $373 million
in bridge and road improvements by the end of the year and about $1.3 billion
in work by the end of June 2009.
"If you ask anybody who sits in traffic on Friday, Saturday or Sunday or
on any weekday at the Turnpike merge, I think they'll be the first one to
support it," he said. "Politicians and people like me have promised
these projects for over a decade, and it's time to make good on our
promise."
Kolluri said the widening of the Turnpike between interchanges 6 and 9,
considered a high-priority project, would begin by next spring.
Corzine has said about 15,000 jobs will be created for each $1 billion spent on
bridge and road projects.
An initial plan proposed by the Authority had recommended three toll increases
over 15 years that would have raised $11 billion.
Under the new version unveiled this week, drivers on the Turnpike would see
tolls rise 50 cents per trip this year, to an average of $1.70, and an
additional 90 cents in 2012.
Parkway drivers would see an average increase of 15 cents this year and 25
cents four years later. Ramp tolls would increase by 10 cents this year and 5
cents in 2012.
The additional revenue, about $8.25 billion, would be used to widen the
Turnpike and Parkway and partially fund a new rail tunnel into New York City.
Republican lawmakers sought to block funding the rail tunnel with toll
increases. GOP Senate candidate Dick Zimmer, who attended Friday's hearing,
guaranteed a legal challenge to using toll revenues to pay for the tunnel.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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