The recent Port Authority toll hikes — which will send the cost of crossing one of their bridges and tunnels to a whopping $15 by 2015 — should’ve been higher to pay for the region’s infrastructure needs, the head of the agency said today.
Executive Director Chris Ward — whose initial plan called for much steeper increases — said ideological sniping bogged down the debate around the hikes.
“We emerged with a toll and fare strategy, a 10-year capital plan that I would argue is far too modest … not one that expands this region in any transformative way,” he said at a New York Building Congress luncheon in downtown Manhattan.
“That agenda was unthinkable in this environment.”
Projects that could be delayed include the creation of a garage at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Times Square — which would keep empty buses from traveling back to New Jersey for storage — and the redevelopment Central Terminal building at LaGuardia Airport.
Both Gov. Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — who have to approve any toll hikes from the bi-state agency — were critical of the Port Authority’s initial hike plans and dispatched their top aides to the agency to come up with the smaller hikes.
They also demanded a full audit of the agency as a condition of approving the hikes.
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5 Responses
I just drove 500 miles in Canada from Montreal to Toronto and beyond. Beautiful highways and bridges and not a single toll. Plenty of traffic as well. Not a stitch of tolls. Something is critically wrong with the PA
PA Is there any connection between the Port and Palestinian Authorities?
The PA is a just another overbloated government agency that just spends as it pleases without a care or concern for those paying the bill. Why those crossing the bridges & tunnels should pay for other PA infastructure such as bus terminals & airports is beyond me. Why not give medicare & social security over to the PA to run & they could make the GWB & Lincoln & Holland tunnels $60 to cross.
Again, the PA, like the MTA, wants the motoring public to pay for ALL their expenses. At least the PA bridges and tunnels are kept in some state of repair unlike the TA ones.
The tolls are paid leaving NJ. What’s sure is sure. Not even a $100 toll can keep sane people in NJ so fleece them before they do NOT return.