Replies

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There is no need for tolls in NJ or elsewhere. Toll roads are unsafe and cause many accidents and deaths, there was just one on the NJ Turnpike last week. We lose millions of federal aid every year. Let's end tolls once and for all in NJ and and the rest of the country.

I have no complaints about the tollway in Houston.

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Tolls or Trolls?

I misread this one coming in - and sure, nobody likes Trolls.

I have no complaints about the tolls in WNY. Those who use the services pay for them.

As for the inconvenience of the toll, I minimized that by getting an EZ-Pass for my car. It's great, especially with all the toll roads in the Buffalo area.

Tell me where your plan replaces the maintenance costs of these roads, bridges, tunnels, or thruways? Tax money is a bad answer.

I'm not a huge fan of toll roads, as I believe more than enough is collected by way of gas taxes (esp. here in Canada) to pay for all the roads we drive on.

We have a toll road here locally that has no toll booths (407 ETR, Toronto area). All tolls are collected electronically, either by way of a transponder in your car, or by capturing your plate number as you enter and exit, and using the motor vehicle registry for billing purposes. It's a pretty slick system, but the toll rate is high (and rising), out of province/country cars aren't billed, and I have doubts about the correctness of the government involvement with their billing (by looking up plate owners for them electronically). It is a privately-owned toll road now, BTW.

As to the safety issue, I had the same thought on my last trip on the "Cobequid Pass" - a toll road which is part of the Trans Canada Highway built to bypass part of the old TCH across Nova Scotia. Anyway, the tolls are roughly in the middle of this section of the highway. The speed limit is posted 110 km/h (approx 70 mph), so after half an hour to 45 minutes of cruising along at speeds up to 80, you have to slow and come to a stop in the middle of this road. They've taken a number of steps to alert drivers - flashing light, rumble strips, reduced speed limits, etc - starting 4 or 5 km ahead, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time until someone plows at full speed into a vehicle at stopped at the toll booth, if it hasn't happened already.

Here is the latest news, is anyone going to the conservative conference this Saturday?

1. CAT held a news conference at the State House in Trenton on Wednesday, April 17th at which time Dr. Jonathan K. Peters, Asst. Professor of Finance at the College of Staten Island gave a talk on his study of the harmful effects of pollution at the 11 across-the-road Parkway toll barriers. Pollutants total 15.5 THOUSAND TONS of carbon monoxide, 408 TONS of hydrocarbons and 300 TONS of Nitrous oxide. (Pollutants at ramp tolls are additive!) Dr. Jonathan K. Kramer, Professor of Finance at Kutztown Univ. co-authored the study.

It is estimated that these pollutants add $12.7 million dollars to the societal costs of collecting tolls which total's $60.7 million!

Individuals most at risk from these pollutants are toll collectors, motorists and residents in nearby areas! It was emphasized that the data presented was all on the conservative side!

In additon Kevin McKeown of Washington D.C. based NoMoreTolls also talked about the extreme harmful effects of toll collecting.In addition Joe DeGraw, Vice President of Citizens Against Tolls talked briefly about our Supreme Court filing as a Friend of the Court in support of Docket 01-1421 which is seeking to end tolls.

Media representatives from CH12, AP & Gannett and 101.5 were in attendance to cover the conference.

2. CAT secretary John Millett alongwith Bret Schundler will talk at a meeting of the New Jersey Conservatives at the Clarion Hotel, 2055 St. Hwy. 27 in Edison (732 287-3500) on Saturday, April 20th, starting at 9:00 A.M. For more info contact New Jersey Conservative Newtork

3. We have just paid our NJ Income Tax bill of $240 (Minimum tax even though we have little funds!) (Federal tax is $0!). In addition we will have expenses of at least $400 to file a Friend of the Court brief. Several of you have sent in a contribution in the past two weeks to this important civic effort, for which we would like to express our thanks. If you have not yet made a contribution we could really use you help! Checks may be mailed to

Citizens Against Tolls, Inc.
P.O.Box 497
Manasquan, NJ, 08736!

Your core group has spent countless hours on this effort on your behalf so your monetary support would be most helpful! Keep up your letter writing to newspapers and legislators! Ray Neveil

The move to eliminate tolls is gathering steam and with your help we will accomplish our goal! Important developments will be unveiled in the next few weeks! You can help us now by simply writing 2 letters from the comforts of you PC room as follows:

1. At a meeting last week of a group called "Congestion Busters Task Force" it was revealed that in a new AAA member poll, 69% favored removal of Parkway tolls! They are now asking for input from the public as to how to relieve congestion and the removal of tolls is certainly high on the list. Send a brief comment supporting this action, or any other congestion busters you may have to:

Congestion Busters Task Force cbtf@dot.state.nj.us The deadline for receiving replies is May 17th so take a moment now to reply - let's get this figure up to 99%!

2. As we mentioned in a release last week Citizens Against Tolls has filed a Friends of the Court brief in support of Washington, DC based NoMoreTolls case to eliminate tolls. You can really help here by writing a brief letter supporting the elimination of tolls and stating why you think it is important. Principal among the reasons is the fatalities that toll booths cause - there have been 3 toll booth fatalities in NJ alone this year!. Letters should be written to either or both:

Re:U.S. Supreme Court Case #01-1421 - McKeown v. The Delaware Bridge Authority, et al.

Justice Antonin Scalia (Born in Trenton!)
or Justice David H. Souter (His jurisdiction is the 3rd Circuit which includes NJ)

Letters may be addressed as Dear Justice Scalia
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States
1 First Street, NE
Washington, DC, 20543-0001

This is your chance to help provide input to show the Justices how serious this problem is - PLEASE Write!

petition signed ...

Citizens Against Tolls

You can scroll on down to the bottom and register on the yahoo groups distribution list. Also, please sign the petition, send in a modest contribution, order bumper stickers, etc. Thanks for your help.

At the Assembly Transportation Committee meeting on Monday, May 13th it was announced that the plan to fund E-ZPass by fining violators is not working! (Surprise, Suprise!!) They didn't have the courage to announce that Citizens Against Tolls has a plan to eliminate tolls (E-ZPass) but instead continue to pour money into a failed system (ANYTHING TO KEEP THE PARTY GOING!).

(Witness the new toll booths in Ocean County along with glamorous rest area buildings that are used 3 hours a day!)

They are also concerned about how to pay for the E-ZPass debt - NOW they are thinking of this after E-ZPass has been under development since 1992! Everyone was too embarrassed to ask where the $300 million for the Atlantic City tunnel, the $500 million for the Auto Inspection System, the initial $300 million for E-ZPass and the $90 million for the collapse of the Rt. 80 bridge in Parsippany came from! All this as a result of (Ed) gross mismanagement! (Ed Gross was the former head of the E-ZPass plan!) He offered little explanation of how the State got into this mess nor did the committee really press him - he's laughing all the way to the bank with a lucrative pension and probably a fat separation payment!

How the authorities get away with all of this reckless spending and management is beyond belief however the pressure to remove tolls is now building up fast - witness the increasing number of letters to the editors - 4 in the Star Ledger today alone!

The bottom line is that your support is really needed at this crucial point in time. Write to newspapers expressing your strong desire to eliminate tolls NOW Before any additional funds are expended and before there are anymore fatalities! Also write to the following who are now getting testy because they can't understand why they are getting so many letters - they are apparently living in some isolated location and out of touch with the wishes of the public so your continued letters will help get them back to reality.

The addresses are:

Chairperson of the Senate Transportation Committee
Assemblyman John Wisniewski
3145 Bordentown Ave.
Parlin, NJ, 08859

Chairperson of the Senate Transportation Committee
Senator Andrew Ciesla
852 Hwy. 70
Brick, NJ, 08724

A final note - there have been 3 fatalities caused by toll booths so far this year - will one of us be next? By ending tolls we can get rid of the costly,toll collecting nightmare!

Again, your core group of 5 individuals has put in countless hours on this effort and has traveled to Committee hearings, so please help by writing and of course we desperately need your contribution

Citizens Against Tolls
P.O.Box 497
Manasquan, NJ, 08736

Thanks in advance,
Ray Neveil

Hundreds of E-ZPass defects uncovered

Manufacturer cites faulty installation
Friday, May 10, 2002
BY JOE MALINCONICO
Star-Ledger Staff

E-ZPass equipment was installed improperly at more than 330 tollbooths on the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike, according to a recent inspection report.

The report, compiled last month by the company that makes the electronic toll equipment, says that defects persist at about 250 of the lanes, even though state officials knew about many of the problems more than two years ago, shortly after E-ZPass began operation.

But state highway officials allowed the construction to continue and had the contractors fix some, but not all, of the flaws, according to the report.

Officials said they are unsure how many of the millions of E-ZPass errors that have plagued New Jersey motorists since 2000 were caused by faulty installation.

"There were differences of opinion about whether these things could be causing bad reads on the tags or not," said Lewis Thurston III, former executive director of the New Jersey Highway Authority, which operates the Parkway. "It was never fully resolved."

"It's not that astounding to say that if this high-tech equipment is not installed right, it's not going to work properly," said Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee that has been holding hearings on the troubled E-ZPass program.

New Jersey Department of Transportation officials declined to comment on the report, saying they were waiting for Veridian Engineering, a Buffalo, N.Y., firm, to conduct independent tests to pinpoint the technical problems with E-ZPass and to resolve the finger-pointing among the various contractors involved in the project.

Mark IV IVHS Inc., the company that built the E-ZPass antennas and tags for all the major electronic toll systems on the East Coast, including Massachusetts and Delaware, also manufactured the equipment used in New Jersey.

Mark IV's equipment was installed at the Parkway and Turnpike toll plazas by Railroad Construction/RCC Electric, under the supervision of the state's main E-ZPass contractor, which underwent many corporate changes and is now WorldCom Inc.

"They told us what to install and where to install it, and we followed their directions," said Al Daloisio, president of Paterson-based Railroad Construction.

Mark IV has conducted a comprehensive survey of every electronic toll lane on the Parkway and Turnpike, outlining the installation anomalies, tollbooth by tollbooth. The report does not lay blame for any of the findings.

Among the failings listed in the survey were antennas put in at the wrong heights or angles, faulty wire connections, missing antennas, omitted cables and modems plugged into the wrong slots. Mark IV officials would not elaborate on their report.

"I think this was a case of the contractor trying to do things cheaper," said Assemblyman Anthony Impreveduto (D-Hudson), a member of the Transportation Committee, criticizing the government officials and firms responsible for the installation of Mark IV's equipment.

In dozens of cases, the structures of the tollbooths themselves prevented the equipment from being installed in the way that Mark IV said conformed with its specifications, according to the report.

For example, the manufacturer says the antennas at tollbooths work best at a minimum height of 14 feet 6 inches. But many New Jersey tollbooths, mostly on the Parkway, have canopies that are a few inches lower than that.

State officials decided to go ahead and allow the E-ZPass antennas to be installed at the lower heights, rather than raise the tollbooth canopies, according to letters written by the general contractor.

A similar problem arose involving the width of the tollbooths.

Mark IV's specifications call for the lanes to be 12 feet wide. But in about 60 instances, the report shows the lanes were about 2 feet wider than that, increasing the chances that the antennas would not pick up the signals from E-ZPass customers' transponders as their vehicles passed through.

Back in March 2000, representatives of the general contractor, then known as MFS Technologies, a subsidiary of WorldCom, acknowledged some of the flaws and said some of them would be corrected, like the lack of cables to synchronize the toll data flowing from various highway lanes.

But Mark IV's 2002 survey showed that 20 Parkway tollbooths still lacked the synchronization cables. State highway officials who are well-versed in the E-ZPass technology said the lack of those cables likely would produce E-ZPass errors.

The E-ZPass system has been plagued by bogus violations. At a legislative hearing in March, WorldCom officials provided a report that showed an average of a million mistakes a month.

WorldCom construction director, Michael Hagarty, discussed the antenna problems involving the height, angle and tollbooth width in a Feb. 6, 2002, letter to the Turnpike Authority. Hagarty pointed out that state officials had signed off on the deviations from the equipment's specifications.

Hagarty also maintained that installing the antennas at the lower height was not causing bogus violations or other E-ZPass errors. He said his company had done a 30-day study at eight Parkway lanes where antennas were lower than 14 feet 6 inches. The study determined there were no problems particular to those lanes, Hagarty said in his letter.

In response to questions about the report on the installation problems, WorldCom spokesman Tim Guillen said that over the last four months, the company has "paid Mark IV to keep a team of technicians working on both the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike to improve and tune its equipment."

"We have demonstrated our willingness to see the contract through to completion and this report is an example of our efforts to achieve final performance under the contract," Guillen added.

"Mark IV certified each one of the lanes when the equipment was installed and commissioned, and except for a handful of lanes, the equipment provided was installed as specified by Mark IV."

Several E-ZPass customers said they were not surprised by the Mark IV report's findings that equipment was installed improperly.

For example, Raymond Luther of Randolph said he noticed he was more likely to get erroneous violation notices when he drove through the middle of tollbooths, rather than through the far left.

Rafael Fajardo of Elizabeth said he was more likely to get bogus penalties whenever he went through the Passaic exit on the Parkway.

"It's such a big headache," said Fajardo, who estimates he gets 30 to 60 false violations per month. "Sometimes, I just feel like taking all the letters and throwing them in the garbage."

EZ Pass Defects Uncovered

Agency didn't check E-ZPass plan
Tuesday, May 14, 2002

By DANIEL SFORZA
Staff Writer

The state Economic Development Authority did not review the E-ZPass financing plan before it issued $300 million in bonds to finance the project, now nearly $500 million in debt, officials testified Monday.

EDA Executive Director Caren Franzini told lawmakers that the EDA instead relied on assurances from the toll road operators, the E-ZPass contractor, the state Department of Transportation, and the state treasurer.

"From a pure financing, not implementation, standpoint it did make sense," Franzini said. "We were doing this on behalf of the toll roads. ... It's their obligation to make sure this works for them."

But the financing plan never worked as expected.

It relied heavily on $25 fines to be paid by toll cheats, but that revenue never materialized as anticipated, partly because the system for catching cheats didn't work properly. A financial report from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority placed the amount owed on the system at $470 million.

The state Assembly Transportation Committee has been investigating the failed E-ZPass contract for months. Lawmakers are looking for a responsible party and a way to pay the debt. They hope to install safeguards to prevent similar problems in the future.

"E-ZPass is a crime that has been perpetrated on the state," said Assemblywoman Linda Stender, D-Union. "The more questions we ask, the less we know about who is responsible."

Committee Chairman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, said the toll roads will have to find the money by either raising tolls or putting off road projects.

"If this is going to get paid, tolls may go up, projects may not get done," he said. "That's not what we bargained for."

Governor McGreevey said earlier this year that tolls would not be raised to cover the E-ZPass debt, which means the money will likely be siphoned from road projects. The five regional toll agencies that are responsible for the deficit arethe Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the operators of the New Jersey Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway, the Atlantic City Expressway, and Delaware highways.

Franzini said the EDA was asked to handle the E-ZPass financing by former state treasurers Brian Clymer and James DiEleuterio Jr. Neither returned calls Monday.

Clymer preceded DiEleuterio, who took office on July 1, 1997. The bonds were issued in 1998.

"This is not something that the EDA asked for," Franzini said. "We were asked to do the financing. We were asked by the treasurer's office to do the financing."

E-ZPass contractor MFS Network Technologies chose the Toronto financial firm Newcourt Capital to find private investors for the project. The bonds were issued with both fixed rate and variable rate interest schedules in two groups of $150 million.

The original investors were John Hancock Life Insurance Co., Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co., American General Corp., and Commerzbank AG. The bonds have since been resold and are held by about a dozen large firms, Franzini said.

Newcourt has changed hands, as well. It was taken over in 1999 by CIT Group, which was subsequently taken over by Tyco International in 2001.

Stender said the private placement of the bonds, rather than a public offering, may have helped obscure the shaky financing.

"It was a very good way to escape scrutiny, to place them privately," Stender said.

Assemblyman Alex DeCroce, R-Parsippany, played down the significance of Monday's testimony.

"We're not in default," he said to his fellow committee members. "You're going to scare the hell out of the public. Right now, everything is working well. We shouldn't look for an accident to happen."

Wisniewski, head of the largely Democratic committee, responded: "The problem here is the accident has already happened. The troubling aspect is the money has to come from somewhere. If it's not from a toll increase, it's going to come from a reallocation of resources."

Breaking a promise at high speed
Thursday, October 31, 2002

The other day I was driving up the Parkway when I felt the call of nature. I decided to stop at one of those rest areas in that are in the medians. To get to it, I had to cross three lanes of traffic. That meant playing demolition derby with a bunch of SUVs all doing 90 miles an hour or so.

I made it over to the exit, but not before I nearly took another exit, the final one. A crazed driver on a cell phone nearly nailed me.

The McGreevey administration can't do much about the unfortunate placement of those rest area entrances. But the experience I just described is similar to the game of bumper cars we all must play at the many toll plazas along the otherwise-pleasant Parkway. And Gov. James E. McGreevey could do something about those. He could keep his campaign promise to get rid of them in seven years.

Instead, we're getting high- speed E-ZPass. At a press conference in Trenton yesterday, McGreevey announced that four Parkway toll plazas will be converted to high-speed E-ZPass over the next three years. This, he said, will eliminate a lot of "unnecessary swerving."

Perhaps. But what about all of the necessary swerving? That experience I just described will be repeated at every toll plaza as drivers make -- or fail to make -- all those split-second decisions about which toll lane to enter. Why not just get rid of the tolls?

Here's what McGreevey said during the campaign last year: "Seven years is a responsible and realistic goal. It provides enough time for the incremental pay-down of the debt."

Here's what he said yesterday: "Again, we had targeted to utilize the monies from the cost savings of the merger of the Highway Authority and the Turnpike Authority to dedicate to toll removal. Today, by virtue of the half-a-billion-dollar debt within the E-ZPass system, the entirety of the cost savings will be dedicated to addressing the E- ZPass deficit."

He went on to say that the E- ZPass debt is larger now than it seemed last year during the campaign. Perhaps, but it was well known during the campaign last year that E-ZPass was a disaster. In fact, that was one of McGree vey's prime criticisms of the outgoing Republican administration. The deficit is no surprise to anyone.

The question is: Are we going to get in deeper? And the answer is: yes.

McGreevey and his transportation commissioner, Jamie Fox, put the cost of this first high-speed E- ZPass project, which also includes a couple of plazas on the Turnpike and the Atlantic City Expressway, at $45 million. The remaining seven Parkway plazas could be converted at about $10 million each, they said.

Realistically, this project could end up costing $200 million, which is the figure Republican Bret Schundler was using as his reason for opposing high-speed E-ZPass in the debates last year.

"Vote for me and we tear down the Parkway tolls," Schundler said at the time. "Vote for my opponent and we get high-speed E-ZPass." The implication was McGreevey wouldn't keep his promise. That seems to be the case.

"I don't think there are any public promises he's made that he hasn't broken," said Schundler when I called him. "He said he was not going to increase taxes, and he increased the business taxes. He said he would do something about property taxes and car insurance, and he hasn't. The way you judge the way someone is successful is whether they kept promises they made to the public."

Not really. The way you judge them is by whether they can get away with breaking their promises. And if this all works perfectly, drivers will accept high-speed E-ZPass -- especially if the number of tollbooths is drastically reduced. But if this administration screws this up anywhere near as bad as the prior one did, it's a great campaign issue in 2005.

If I were the governor, I'd keep the promise and get rid of the tolls. Here's how: New Jersey has one of the lowest gas tax rates in the country. It has to go up if we want to keep building roads. Next year the transportation trust fund goes broke.

If I were the governor, I'd pair a gas tax increase of about 10 cents with the elimination of the Parkway tolls. For once, people would think they were getting something in return for a tax hike.

But what about all of those people who don't use the Parkway? You know, all those people who write to this paper saying they commute on other roads so they shouldn't have to pay for the Parkway?

I'd make an exception for them. For all these years, I've been paying for their roads while also risking my life at Parkway toll plazas. So I wouldn't raise their gas tax a dime.

I'd raise it a dollar.

Paul Mulshine is a Star-Ledger columnist. He may be reached at pmulshine@starledger.com.

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?level_3_id=35&page=5512545

On Parkway, E-Z comes and E-Z likely to stay
Monday, November 04, 2002

Herald News

High-speed E-ZPass is coming to New Jersey but don't slow down just yet. Gov. James E. McGreevey announced that seven toll plazas would get the overhead equipment over the next three years. It should help keep the flow of traffic moving, plus finally making it clear to motorists where the E-ZPass lanes are. The flip side to McGreevey's announcement is that the state would not invest $45 million in this limited project if the tolls on the Garden State Parkway were slated to be eliminated.

High-speed E-ZPass isn't new. Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia and Illinois already have it. To implement it systemwide on the Parkway would cost $125 million. McGreevey's phase-in makes sense. Not just because of the investment, but because of the state's history of not only reinventing the wheel - with Parsons and E-ZPass - but of putting a Firestone radial ATX on the rim. While other states have introduced E-ZPass with limited glitches, New Jersey has been plagued by transponders that incorrectly charged drivers and a confusing, haphazard approach to marking and placing E-ZPass booths.

High-speed E-ZPass eliminates some of the confusion. E-ZPass lanes are grouped together and the old booths and barriers are removed. A cash booth handles 800 cars per hour; high-speed E-ZPass handles 2,000 cars per hour.

When announcing the project in Trenton on Wednesday, McGreevey said, "High-speed E-ZPass is another way we are going to keep New Jersey moving. This technology will allow New Jersey drivers to spend more time at home with their families and less time in their cars."

The governor's optimism bypasses a not-so-quick fix of the E-ZPass system's financial sinkhole. It is in debt to the tune of $469 million and, according to the governor, needs existing tolls to become solvent. The bottom line to drivers is that the tolls - albeit electronic or cash - are here to stay.

Opponents of the plan are concerned about a possible increase in accidents as cars speed up and tollbooths disappear. That should not become an issue. Drivers are more prone to cause accidents as they shift from lane to lane looking for the E-ZPass lanes or deciding at the last minute to shift lanes than they will be from simply driving straight ahead. The whole point of E-ZPass is to speed up traffic. Time will tell whether the selected use of the new system will have an impact on commuting for drivers using the Parkway system for long distances.

Not all stretches of roadway are suited to the new technology. Since it is dependent on a straight stretch of roadway, some of the existing toll barriers on the Parkway can't be converted.

Three plazas will be operable by the end of next year; the remaining four in 2005. Given the fact that the technology already is in use in other states, the timetable seems lengthy. However, New Jersey motorists are accustomed to delays and cost overruns. If the seven plazas are completed on time, that will be a success in itself.

However, at some point New Jerseyans should take this administration to task for not keeping its pledge to eliminate Parkway tolls. If the current tolls are needed only to eliminate the existing E-ZPass debt, why invest in a long-range high-speed system? No tollbooths and no E-ZPass would speed up traffic. If the new technology is designed to put a positive spin on the negative truth that the tolls will never be eliminated and that the revenue will go to pay for a system that will never turn a profit, than that needs to be said. It seems high-speed or slow, New Jersey drivers never stop paying.

5512545

I second your NJ opinion and raise you a McGreedy promise!

CAT officials have been extremely busy over the last few months and have had meetings with Senators Bennett and Codey and Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox regarding CAT's plan to eliminate tolls.

As a positive result of these sessions it has been agreed to form a group to look over the many details of CAT's plan. The group will consist of legislative representatives, members of the DOT, members from the Treasury Dept., representatives from the Governor's Office, an academic representative - primarily on the environment and CAT officials.

(In the Nov. 12th issue of the Star-Ledger, it was announced that Gary Taffett, Governor McGreevey's chief of staff is resigning due to the demands of the job (Annual salary, $138,500) and a possible replacement could be Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox!)

DOT's prinicipal concern was how to fund the estimated $45 million needed annually for Parkway capital improvements. CAT believes it has addressed this concern. Of course where did the money come from for the Atlantic City Tunnel ($300 million),motor vehicle inspection revamp ($500 million), the proposed Dept. of Motor Vehicle revamp ($200 million), the Rt 80 bridge collapse (cost unknown!) et al!

Also politicians cringe at the thought of raising the gas tax by one cent, which would return $45 million, but lets look at this in reverse - let's reduce the gas tax by say one cent and replace it with tolls on say Rt. 195 or Rt. 80! This would create quite a furor! Tolls are the most expensive way to collect a tax. (It costs the state about 5% to collect taxes while on the Parkway toll collection costs are almost 50%!)

In addition gas prices are highly elastic with the public not sounding a whimper as prices have increased by five or more cents over the past few weeks! A one cent dedicated tax would never be felt!

Incidentally a large portion of the motor vehicle license fees have been used for purposes unrelated to the motor vehicle dept. and yet it is planned to increase such fees to cover the cost of the revamp!

In addition, it was announced on Nov. 1st that the E-ZPass Administration center, 200 to 300 people, would be moved from Secaucus to Newark! Again, at what cost to move furniture, telephones, PC's, computer equipment, etc. all of which would not be necessary without tolls! (No one seems to know the exact number but it is somewhere between 200 and 300 plus supervision!)

Another little known E-ZPass expense is that for technicians who need trucks, garages, storage for parts, supervision, etc., etc., to maintain all of the sensors, surveillance cameras, flood lighting, etc., in addition to centralized computers and billing and collection functions! A large part of technicians time is required by the need for travel!

Another expense is the relocation of all toll lanes for hi-speed E-ZPass should it be installed. In addition new billboard type signs will be needed which need lighting, maintenance, etc. (This will be the fifth time for relocations of the 220 toll lanes in trying to get the right combination and we're sure it will not be the last!

It was also announced in a recent edition of the Star-Ledger that there were two firms that bid for the E-ZPass contract - ACS, the winner, and a subsidiary of Lockheed aircraft, the second highest bidder - ACS just bought out the subsidiary of Lockheed!
Two weeks before the last election ACS made a $50,000 contribution to the McGreevey campaign!

In short, the collection of tolls is a highly expensive proposition - a make work operation that would not be needed without tolls!

In closing, we wonder how many people are employed at the three story Parkway headquarters building, replete with the overhead of a cafeteria, parking areas, security, private offices and staffs for the many directors and executives, ad nauseum!!

Some legislators tell us that they don't get many complaints about tolls so here is your chance to complain - if you don't know who to write to, contact the Office of Legislative Services, toll free, on 1-800-792-8630 - this is your chance to be heard AND CAT needs your support in this vital mission!
Thanks for your continued support for eliminating tolls which inconviences motorists 1.6 million times daily!
From your CAT Officials.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We have received information that the phone line at the Office of Legislative Services is always busy and have been asked for their addresses:

Office of Legislative Services 1-800-792-8630 or 1-609-292-4840
Office of Public Information
State House Annex, P.O.Box 068 Trenton, NJ, 08625-0068

E mail address is: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us

The Senate Transportation Committee Chairperson is Senator Andrew Ciesla, 852 Highway 70, Brick, NJ, 08724

The Assembly Transportation Chairperson is Assemblyman John Wisniewski, Suite B, 3145 Bordentown Ave., Parlin, NJ, 08859

These are the individuals you should write to, to press for the elimination of Parkway tolls. In addition you should write or call your local legislators whose addresses can be obtained from the Office of Legislative Services.

For those in Senator Codey's district please also write to him as he says he gets no complaints about Parkway tolls! His address is: 449 Mt. Pleasant Ave., West Orange, NJ, 07052. (973 731 6770)

If you are one of the 1.6 million individuals who are inconvenienced daily by the paying of a toll take this opportunity to join the groundswell of those who want costly and hazardous tolls removed! CAT needs your help - they can't win this battle by themselves!

End Tolls in NJ

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ANTI-TOLL RALLY!

There is an anti-toll rally planned for Monday, November 25th, at 9:00 A.M. at the Welcome Center on the Pennslvania side of the Rt. 78 Delaware River bridge crossing. The purpose of the rally is to protest the planned 400% increase in bridge tolls! If you really want to protest tolls here is your chance.

We understand that the toll bridge authorities are upset about this planned demonstration as they can't understand why anyone would want to protest tolls - they are especially alarmed that a lot of truckers may attend!

Meanwhile here in NJ Governor McGreevey is planning to sign a bill to enter into a contract with ACS Solutions to operate E-ZPass at a cost of $45 million annually for the next 10 years! The bill is being signed under an emergency contract provision whereby no one is allowed to look at the bill until after it is signed! (Not even legislators are allowed to inspect the bill!) We wonder what the emergency is - we think it is the fact that the authorities are getting concerned that CAT's bill to progressively remove tolls in 4 years and pay off the massive debt that has been allowed to accumulate is gathering to much momentum.

CAT has sent certified letters to the Turnpike (E-ZPass coordinators) and the DOT requesting copies of the contracts at a cost of $9 plus unknown duplicating and handling fees! (This is where some of your contributions are going!)

By the way we have sent a letter to Governor McGreevey to make sure that the contract has an "escape clause" whereby the contract can be terminated when tolls are removed (e.g. in 4 years under CAT's plan!) All this from a governor who promised to remove tolls in seven years! - another broken promise!

But wait - the $450 million is only the beginning! In addition they have approved a contract with the HNTB Corp. to design high-speed E-ZPass lanes at seven interchanges at a cost of $4.5 million ahich will easily grow to over $10 million to care for all interchanges! And this isn't the end - there is the construction costs of $10 million per Parkway toll plazas ($110 million for all plazas - not including ramps!) to do the actual construction work for high-speed E-ZPass and we all know the $10 million is just for openers and will probably be $20 million, or a total of $220 million! Add these all up and you have a total outlay of at least $480 million - not bad for a governor who is pleading poverty and can't find the money for needed Parkway capital improvements!

Imagine the campaign contibutions that will be forthcoming from the E-ZPass companies ($50,000 was contributed to McGreevey's campaign two weeks before his election) plus that from the many contractors who will be performing the work at plazas! (The Parkway alone has 16 consulting firms under retainers!)

And of course we must rember that there is outstanding debt of over $300 million for the existing troubled, low-speed E-ZPass and senior Parkway debt of $600 million! (CAN YOU SEE JUSTIFICATION FOR TOLL INCREASES IN THE NEAR FUTURE - ANOTHER MCGREEVEY PROMISE WILL BE BROKEN!)

All of these massive expenditures can be avoided by implementing CAT's plan to remove tolls on a progressive basis, starting with the Raritan Plaza, over a four year period! The implementation of CAT's plan will also work toward eliminating that massive accident, and unfortunately fatalities, that will occur at toll plazas with tolls!

Of course the authorities would like very much to have more than the 50% of users use E-ZPass for that will allow them to painlessly increase tolls in small increments which they feel would not be noticeable! They are also progressively trying to coerce users into getting E-ZPass by eliminating tokens, reducing cash only lanes and putting cash only lanes in a location where it is difficult to accesss - and they are supposed to be working in the public's interest! Sounds like they are working in their own interests!

What can you do? You can just sit back and let this travesty continue or you can protest by writing to your legislators and newspapers AND governor McGreevey! CAT can't do this by themselves even though they are being heard more and more!

To all Citizens Against Tolls Supporters:

In our message of 11-22-02 regarding the Hi-Speed E-ZPass fiasco it was indicated that the total actual and estimated costs of installing and operating Hi-Speed E-ZPass would be $480 million. The figure is really $680 million, as follows:

($millions)
E-ZPass operational costs $450
Design costs 10
Construction costs 220
_____
Total $680

Again, this is a ten year committment, and estimated costs have a history of being exceeded with a shoulder shrug!
Even if the total was only $580 million it's an awful lot of money when CAT has a four year plan that would not cost anything to implement!

Sorry about the mis-calculation - we are not used to dealing in millions!! Must have been a senior moment, AGAIN!

Hi to all Loyal CAT Supporters!

You may have thought CAT was in hibernation for the last few weeks but quite the contrary we have been especially busy as you will see in the following.

1. We have prepared 2 cartoons, one with the aid of a professional cartoonist, illustrating 11 piggies (Parkway exec's) feeding at the trough of Parkway tolls, collecting over $1.5 million annually in salaries while the other cartoon shows the large number of accidents (11,427) at and within 2.8 miles north or south of toll plazas over a four year period! Most interesting is the fact that after the introduction of E-ZPass, the number of accidents increased! (2,192 of the accidents were at plazas!)

The chart depicting accidents was the result of tireless and meticulous work by one of our supporters, Ed Heeren, who extracted detailed data from a DOT website. It was found that the Parkway is identified as Route 444 on official reports - a fact that was not previously known or publicized! The chart identifies accidents which occurred every .2 of a mile north or south of the 11 Parkway plazas. An interesting fact is that the total number of accidents are evenly spread in the 2.8 miles north AND south of toll plazas -probably drivers jockeying for position upon entering a plaza and trying to get to a proper lane and accelerating upon leaving a plaza!

These charts (cartoons) will be broadcast to over 300 media outlets for their use, via our FAX broadcast feature, so be on the lookout!

2. Governor McGreevey recently increased not only the corporate business tax but also increased the minimum tax from $200 plus a $20 filing fee TO $500 plus a $50 filing fee. We are subject to this tax which means that we will easily be taxed into oblivion.

This leaves our meager treasury in a depleted state. (There is no federal minimum tax so as we have no earning we pay no federal tax!) We have written to governor McGreevey and also senators Bennett and Codey requesting that the tax law be changed so that small companies with assets of say less than $10,000 be exempt from the minimum tax - our assets which we use for postage, copying, advertising, FAXing, and taxes(!) etc. are just over $1,000 - enough for another tax payment in April!

3. As you know governor McGreevey recently signed a contract with ACS Solutions to operate a new hi-speed E-ZPass at a cost of $45 million annually for 10 years! The contract was signed under an emergency contract signing provision whereby no one was allowed to see the contract prior to it being signed! (What was the emergency?)

We asked that the contract include an "escape" clause so that when tolls are eliminated by popular demand the state would be released from the contract. We were told that we could see a copy of the 255 page (!) contract by paying a $77 clerical fee! We still do not know if there is an "escape" clause!

It gets worse - ACS Solutions won the contract and the losing bidder was a subsidiary of Lockheed. Shortly after the contract was signed it was announced that ACS Solutions had bought out the Lockheed sunsidiary! By the way, ACS Solutions made two $25,000 contributions to McGreevey's campaign when he was running for governor!

It gets even worse (how can it!) To install hi-speed E-ZPass will require an ESTIMATED $10 million in design costs to redesign the 11 Parkway plazas (They have already been changed four time in the last couple of years to try and accomodate low speed E-ZPass and it still isn't right) PLUS an ESTIMATED $110 million in construction costs to rearrange the plazas for hi-speed E-ZPass!

Talking about debt, which is probably where the money will come from for hi-speed E-ZPass, there is existing senior Parkway debt of $596 which has been allowed to accumulate over the past 50 years, plus $470 million debt for the existing E-ZPass, plus $25 million to try and repair the existing E-ZPass system before hi-speed E-ZPass is installed!

In closing, as you can see, CAT has been quite active. Also as you can see our treasury has been taxed (no pun intended) so we hope that you would consider making a contribution so that we can keep up the fight. Your officers have spent countless hours on this effort and we really need your help! (P.O.Box 497, Manasquan, NJ 08736) Meanwhile please keep writing letters to McGreevey, your legislators AND newspapers demanding an end to Parkway tolls!

Hi Everybody:
It gets a little lonely at the top for your officers at times as we think we are in the anti-Parkway-toll fight alone but by your response to our desperate appeal for funds we find that you are all solidly behind us. Your response was most gratifying and will help solve some of our financial woes as a result of Governor McGreevey's decision to raise the minimum income tax to $500 plus a $50 filing fee, even if you do not have any income!

If you haven't already made a contribution one would certainly be appreciated to help in the fight against Parkway tolls. Letter writing is also a big help - an excellent *letter appeared in today's Ledger (Saturday). Write to your newspapers and especially to Governor McGreevey (Box CN001, Trenton, NJ, 08625) expressing a strong objection to Parkway tolls - let's begin to phase them out without pouring any more funds into toll collecting - especially E-ZPass (E-ZHeadache!) You would be surprised as to how much these letters help and they only takes a minute to write! Many people don't write as they say they don't have the address, well here it is! Let's overwhelm him with letters!

By the way, the above mentioned letter-to-the-editor was run on a Saturday - a light readership day. It was written by a Ms Loretta Lord of Edison. If anyone has her address, would appreciate receiving it as would like to send her some data on the cost of E-ZPass. (I don't have a Middlesex directory nor is the address available on the on-line directory.)

Don't forget to visit our web site for the latest illustrations on the costs of toll collecting and Parkway executives salaries. More cartoons will follow. Incidentally a cartoonist has prepared these cartoons at a fraction of his normal fee! These illustrations are an effective way of getting our message across and have been "broadcast" or FAXED to 300 media outlets through our "broadcast feature!

Again, thanks much for all of your help!

WORKING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST TO ELIMINATE PARKWAY TOLLS

* The letter refers to E-ZPass as a white elephant and reads in part, "This elephant is causing havoc in losses, but we continue to try and find ways to keep it. Logic would tell us to get rid of it, but those responsible still want to sit on it!" (ANYTHING TO KEEP THE PARTY GOING!)

http://www.nj.com/opinion/ledger/forums/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1043515879250980.xml

White elephant There is an elephant loose on the highways, and no one wants to claim responsibility for it. The elephant's name is E-ZPass. It was bought on the premise that New Jersey drivers would be dishonest enough to pay for it. State leaders never found enough of us. Now citizens are turning against citizens, pointing fingers at anyone who doesn't want to feed it. This elephant is causing havoc in losses, but we continue to try to find ways to keep it. Logic would tell us to get rid of it, but those responsible still want to sit on it.

There are many law-abiding citizens who do not want someone to know that on a certain date at a certain time they got on the Parkway or Turnpike and two hours later they exited in a certain town. As the commercial puts it, we still want to travel on roads that no one knows but us. We want to travel where we want, when we want, with no paper trail following our actions.

The solution to the lines on these highways won't be found in E-ZPass but in sending it off to some faraway circus.

-- Loretta Lord, Edison