Cuomo & Christie sign off on $1.50 Port Authority toll hikes (Kills chance of Pres/VP)

NY Post ^ | 8/18/11 | JENNIFER FERMINO

[GreaterSwiss]

Gov. Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have signed off on $1.50 toll hikes for all Port Authority crossings that’ll go into effect next month, sources said.

The final fare hikes are far lower than the ones the Port Authority rolled out last month, which called for a $4 increase on most crossings and were met with widespread disgust by politicians and the public.

Christie and Cuomo are also calling for an audit of the agency.

The new $1.50 hikes will apply to cash and EZ-Pass customers on all the Port Authority’s bridges and tunnels.

Cash payers will also be hit with another $.50 cent surcharges.

Under the new plan, a cash diver would typically pay $10 coming into Manhattan on a Port Authority crossing, up from the current $8.

The PATH train fares will also increase, up to $2.00 from $1.75.

The old plan called for PATH hikes up to $2.75, more than the cost of the subway.

[Oceander]

The Port Authority collects $3.5 Billion in tolls now - in addition it is borrowing $2.5 billion more. Virtually all of that money is going to projects such as the Freedom Tower which have NOTHING to do with bridges and tunnels.

Why should I subsidize something unrelated?

Repeat: The tolls are not going to the roads and bridges..

Duh.

That's what you get when you let a two-government monstrosity like the Port Authority control an expensive piece of critical infrastructure like the Hudson crossings.

Of course it's nothing more than a cash cow for all sorts of political agendas - mostly those from New York (I suspect there are a lot fewer coming from NJ these days) - it's nothing more than another way to covertly extract taxes from people.

If you don't like it, you have two choices: (a) stop using the crossings, or (b) work to have the Port Authority privatized.

Of course even if the Port Authority were a truly private company, the toll revenue from the Hudson crossings would still go toward "subsidizing" that company's other projects - private companies don't shoot for break-even, they shoot for a profit, a surplus, that they can use to invest in other projects.

[curth]

The Big White Rino helped raise the tolls another dollar between NJ and Philly too. And they recently built a soccer stadium in Chester paid for with toll dollars.

[Lazlo in PA]

Our goal MUST be to destroy Hussein's socialism at the ballot box.

I agree with your statement 100%. Unfortunately some of our announced and unannounced candidates don't concur.

Chris Christie refuses to join in on the lawsuit to kill Obamacare. Every single GOP Gov. has but he refuses. He claims it is a distraction. That is not true. It would cost NJ nothing. The true reason is that Obamacare will funnel tons of cash into NJ. $141 Million in the first installment.

Huntsman is a straight up Progressive. If you look through his initiatives as Gov of UT, it reads like Obummer light. Tax and Cap. Single Payer. Global Warming, ect. It is no surprise that the Regime used him.

[adm5]

Raise it to $100 each way. The entire Northeast region can go to hell for all I care, with its majority population of socialistards.

The Conservatives there can move to the South. There’s room for you here. ;)

[Cheetahcat]

“What a rip off...”

I thought Gas tax went for this crap!

[cdnerds]

Who cares, I live in NJ. Christie can raise some tolls rather then raising my already $9,000.00 a year property tax on a 1/2 acre lot. So far he has been a great GOV and I expect him to win reelection handily.

If its the worst he does, Ill take it any day.

[JerseyHighlander]

What isn’t in the article in this thread:

100% of the toll increases go towards new OVERTIME for existing Port Authority employees. There will not be a single dime of infrastructure improvements to be seen by the public from these toll hikes.

NY State Comptroller just released this news this week...

[hercuroc]

Christie continued: "You know, I've said many times about the president who I have admiration for, and who I agree with on a number of issues.

Nuff said.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/chris-christie-you-cant-lead-behind_590321.html

[hercuroc]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/chris-christie-you-cant-lead-behind_590321.html

[napscoordinator]

Finally the FREEPERS know the real Christie. The fat ass has been transparent from the start but folks like you were having orgasmic feelings for the guy. Finally you know the really Christie. Can we stop the crap of him being Pres or even VP....Fat people should never be in a place of such a position.

[rfp1234]

I predict Cuomo will run for POTUS and become the frontrunner Rat candidate in 2016.

[SFConservative]

Tolls are user fees ~ they are quite legitimate, particularly if they reduce the tax burden on the general public.

That's a mixed argument.

1. In most places, the tolls have very little relationship to the cost of maintaining the particular infrastructure asset on which they are charged.

2. The benefit/value of the infrastructure, in terms of vehicle-miles plus person-hours it saves vs a longer alternative route you would have to follow if the asset didn't exist, could represent another basis for the toll level. However, after the asset has been in place for some time, geo-economic development follows transportation routes and resource savings vs an alternative route become meaningless.

3. Transportation bottlenecks such as bridges, tunnels, and sometimes passes are a terrific way of trapping people who have no convenient alternative and nail them for whatever fees you can frog-boil them into over time.

Seems to me that bridges and tunnels whose construction costs have long been paid off and are fed by major arteries should just be part of the highway system and be free of special tolls. Newly constructed bridges, tunnels, etc provide new value and can legitimately be paid off via tolls. If they are bridges to nowhere, by all means keep charging tolls at the level required to maintain them. But if they have become an integral part of local economic patterns, charging those ever-increasing tolls to trapped commuters and delivery vehicles is totally inequitable, since the total local economy, i.e. the general public, benefits.

[LibsMakeMeSick]

Christie is full of it. All these dirtbags do is exist to take from the people. I can’t express the disdain I have for politicians - blood sucking leaches all of them!

[Recovering_Democrat]

Huntsman did indeed embrace Hussein, as.did Charlie Crist.

Yet Christie...you cite his position on Deathcare...does he embrace it, or does he merely choose a different path to oppose it? Somehow I think if he endorsed deathcare, we would know that via Ann Coulter, etc.

My point is we ought to be careful labeling folks RINOS. Reagan would be one by some folks standards here.

[Adam Taxin]

We conservatives in Philadelphia are starting to wake up to him. His tolerance of jihadis is particularly offputting.

Why I would ever drive, rather than take the train or bus, to NYC is beyond me...

[Woodman]

True they are user fees, but there there is one borough where you cannot get to any other part of the city or leave it for free (except on foot), Staten Island. These PA toll increases kill any incentive for businesses other than retail chains to open or stay in business on Staten Island. It won't be long before what should be the 22nd largest city in the US has nothing but jobs at Burger King or the Mall left.

[Vaquero]

from a different post

“You know, I’ve said many times about the President who I have admiration for, and who I agree with on a number of issues. “ Christie

like Gun Control...Gay Marriage etc...

No Thanks Chris....stay in Joisey...you can do some good there....but not in the ‘real’ America

[kevinm13]

Living in NJ and working in Manhattan, I am impacted by these increases every day. Luckily I don’t pay tolls to get into NY very often (my daughter moved into Washington Heights in NY in July and I’ve paid more in tolls to cross the GWB - George Washington Bridge ($8 a shot only going into the city) in the last 2 months than I have paid in tolls in the past 20 years).

I ride the PATH from NJ to NY every day and I have to say the fare is reasonably low at the moment. I pay $52 for a 40 trip ticket ($1.30 a ride) in pre-tax dollars. I hate the idea that the fare is going up but the Port Authority is responsible for the construction of the replacement Freedom Towers that have finally started to show some progress after almost 10 years of rebuilding since 9/11. The Transportation Center at the WTC will bring in trains from NJ and be a hub for subways as well as the PATH. I can see loads of ways they could be doing the job more efficiently and save the money they say they need in these increases. Unfortunately union jobs are very expensive, especially in Manhattan.

Does this kill Christie’s chances for Pres/VP in the future? I doubt it. I am not in favor of the increases in tolls. I think tolls should be eliminated completely. It just feeds the unions and the very very inefficient NYC infrastructure (anybody looking for NYC to either default or go bankrupt in the near future? You heard it hear first!). The PATH fares haven’t been raised for a while and are going to be raised incrementally. I hate to pay more, but it seems somewhat reasonable. Tolls are another story. Eliminate all the tolls.

[Woodman]

Also, I might add that there are no viable public transportation alternatives to New Jersey from Staten Island. Back when they started this toll raising insanity on the Port Authority crossings, they went from $4.00 to $5.00 round trip. Staten Islanders were allotted a discount that if you prepaid for 20 round trips and used them withing 30 days, it was $2.60 or $2.40 (don't remember the exact price. That discount held proportionately until the previous increase which went to $8.00 when the discount was reduced to 25% (now $6.00 for residents). With this latest increase it looks like our discount will go to 20% or $8.00 round trip.

[Lazlo in PA]

Christie has been pushed on this issue hard a few times and has mysteriously had nothing to say on Obamacare. Very uncharacteristic for a man who has a rep for being so opinionated. To me, Obamacare should be the very least a person should be adamantly against as a GOP candidate.

Reagan would be one by some folks standards here.

You are right about that. I too worry that some are hyper critical of some of our guys. I don't even think some people here know what a RINO is with the frequency of use it gets. I see a few CINOs that are running, but RINOs is a far different thing altogether.