The NY Daily News Reports: With his congestion pricing plan dead for now, Mayor Bloomberg said he’d support putting tolls on the bridges into Manhattan.
“Tolling the bridges actually makes a lot of sense,” the mayor said. “It’s easier to do. It is bigger. It includes upper Manhattan.”
A commission last year said $4 tolls on every free crossing into Manhattan could raise $859 million. It is one option likely to be considered by a special panel studying how to raise money for the cash-strapped MTA.
Bloomberg’s plan to charge drivers $8 to enter Manhattan below 60th St. on weekdays died in Albany earlier this year after Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) declined to bring it up for a vote, saying his members were overwhelmingly opposed to it.
The mayor, though, insisted that it had enough votes to pass, but lawmakers were afraid to vote publicly.
“Some of the legislators didn’t want to go on the record and vote,” Bloomberg said. “It would have passed with a very big majority if it was brought up to the vote. But what they do is, they don’t bring it up for a vote.”
(Source: NY Daily News)
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7 Responses
The man is out of synch with reality!!!!! The economy is hurting and trucking companies that have to pay a toll will pass it to the consumer. The consumer who is stapped for cash!!! Mr. Bloomberg!!! Get a life !!!
actually he is a great business man and everybody agrees to that he raised a lot of money for the city so i’m not really sure of what your point is?
He raises a lot of money but where does it go ? For some reason budgets keep getting larger and larger and they never have enough ?
Tolls were originally instituted TEMPORARILY to pay for the construction of the bridge. They were not supposed to remain in place after that.
The reason there are any MTA tolls today is that drivers’ toll dollars are allocated to subway and bus public transportation budgets. If the public transportation were funded separately from the public roadways, there would be no need for these tolls.
Everyone pays the tolls, assuming that their hard-earned dollars are going to pay for bridge maintenance. But that is not the case.
I can just picture it now; Frum couple is driving along on the Brooklyn Bridge, wife is in active labor, panting away, when cop pulls them over. Why? Because they forgot to pay the toll!
John,
He raises money for the city by RAISING taxes. People dont like to have their taxes raised.
He has no right to call himself a republican since he raises taxes like a liberal democrat.
I think a reality-based $4 subway fare is far more “fair” (and non-communist) than an inaccuracy-based $4 toll.
My understanding of the roadways you mentioned would prompt me to disagree with your assertion that the tolls are inconsistent.
As per Wikipedia (and a Satellite View) RFK is actually a network of 3 spans that are, collectively, referred to as one bridge: Bronx-Ward’s Island, Manhattan-Ward’s Island and Queens-Ward’s Island. Whereas, the Willis Avenue bridge, on the other hand, is a far shorter and less complex bridge (and only Bronx-Manhattan, if I am not mistaken), and, therefore, it would make sense to impose a toll on the RFK bridge rather than the Willis Ave. bridge.
The Broadway bridge is part of a roadway (street), whereas the Henry Hudson Bridge is on a highway. True, both are parallel to each other and connect the same areas to each other, namely the Bronx and Manhattan, but, again, it makes more sense to impose a toll on the highway rather than on a street as it likely costs more to maintain due, in part, to a greater volume of vehicles that utilize it.
I appreciate your response, CharlieHall, but I still maintain that taxing motorists to subsidize public transportation is incorrect, un-capitalistic and should be reversed ASAP. Failing that, there should, at the very least, be signs at the MTA toll crossings that thank the motorist for helping maintain and improve New York City’s public transportation systems with their toll payments. Then, at least, drivers would know where their monies are going to. But I wouldn’t hold my breath, of course.