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N.J. Turnpike Authority Proposes Big Toll Hikes

Drivers To Face Significant Increases Over Next 15 Years

NEW JERSEY (CBS) ― Big toll hikes will drive up the cost of using the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway under a plan just presented to Governor Corzine.

Corzine's latest toll hike plan isn't as extreme as the one he introduced earlier this year, but drivers would still face significant increases over the next 15 years.

Under the proposal, tolls on the Jersey turnpike would increase 50 percent next year another 50 percent in 2012 and 11 percent in 2023.

The plan calls for similar percentage increases on the Garden State Parkway. Corzine says the Turnpike Authority would use the revenue generated from the increases to widen both roadways, invest in a new Hudson River rail tunnel, and repair and replace the state's aging bridges.

Drivers who now pay on average $1.20 on the turnpike would pay $1.80 next year, $2.70 in 2012 and $3 in 2023.

The authority tells Corzine the increases are an action of last resort that are needed to meet financial obligations and to pay for road improvements.

"We believe increasing tolls, even minimally, is an action of last resort, not one of first choice," the board said in a letter to Corzine dated Thursday. It was signed by the board's six members, including Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri.

Turnpike tolls have not risen since 2000. The last parkway increase was in 1989.

Corzine says he's abandoning the plan he introduced at the beginning of the year, which called for 800 percent toll hikes, with the revenues going toward paying down New Jersey's massive debt load.

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