Silly me.
From Crain’s:
The toll hikes authorized by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey last month are expected to raise $5 billion to $8 billion over a decade, but transportation insiders worry that Govs. Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie will siphon off the new money to fill their own budget gaps.
“A day of reckoning is on its way,” said an insider close to both administrations. “Now they’ve done a toll increase, and they have to divide up the capital.”
The tolls were raised in part because the World Trade Center rebuilding has gobbled up much of the agency’s money. Christie likely sees that investment as a “New York ask,” to be balanced out by funding for New Jersey projects, the insider said: “The accounting in my head doesn’t have any money going to New York [I think he means NJ] in the near future.”
The American Automobile Association may sue to stop this outrage.
Also from Crain’s:
AAA is urging the U.S. Department of Transportation to block a plan to increase tolls by as much as 50% on the bridges and tunnels between New York City and New Jersey beginning Sunday, saying the hikes violate federal law.
Besides the sticker shock to commuters, the motorists group said Thursday that it objects to using toll revenues for building the new World Trade Center at the site owned by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.
“One of our primary missions is to make sure that any tolls and revenue and any user fees go back into transportation,” said Marta Genovese, vice president of legal affairs for AAA. “But in this case, it’s going into a speculative office development.”
Post a Comment