Thursday, October 8, 2015

Guess who pays 1/3 of all U.S. tolls?

From the Daily News:

Drivers in New York and New Jersey pay the heftiest price for their commutes — accounting for almost one-third of all tolls collected across the U.S., a new report says.

The report, which was released by the International Bridges, Tunnels and Turnpike Association, indicated that drivers in the two states forked over an astounding $4 billion of the $13 billion in tolls accrued across the country.

“The primary reason (for New York and New Jersey drivers paying the highest tolls) would be the concentration in the region of bridges and tunnels connecting the greater New York metro area,” said Neil Gray, director of government affairs at IBTTA.

“The facilities have been in place for a long time, they were very expensive to build, they are expensive to maintain and they are tremendously expensive to replace.”

Gray added that the greater New York metro area has a very high concentration of commuters, which is likely to account for the costliness.

7 comments:

(sarc) said...

They need the money to subsidize all the other boondoggles...

And with ezpass they can raise rate easily at any time.

Anonymous said...

Guess who sends the highest amount of tax revenues to the government? New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Does that seem fair? Of course not, but it will never change. That's why the middle class is moving to other states in droves.

Anonymous said...

I remember years ago Moynihan used to come out every year with the disparity over how much NY sent to the government and how much less it got back.

Typically he missed the point. We should send less, not worry about getting more back, the Democrat form of income redistribution.

We pay the highest tolls? No shock. It goes to the MTA and the Federal government takes its cut. What do we get back for it? Nothing.

The solution? Move to a low tax state.

Camel bladder said...

At least 2/3 of the bridge and tunnel tolls we pay go to direct subsidies for the MTA buses and subways. I find it amazing that these pointy headed scumbags that produced this report could leave out key information like this. This uncontrolled subsidy to the MTA is endless. There are taxes everywhere that we all pay to cover the bloated MTA. Just look at your telephone bill, there is a downstate MTA tax in every phone bill. Not to mention how much of our federal tax dollars get dumped into the MTA shithole.

Disgusted Diva said...

The MTA is corrupt and bloated. It should be investigated and reorganized. Its officials have no apparent accountability at present. The MTA members should be term limited and publicly vetted, and its books should be accessible. Our federal representatives should be more proactive in getting funding for our capital needs and projects, including funding the MTA.

(sarc) said...

Notice we lost two congressional seats in the last census.

Imagine that, even with the flood of illegals, leeches looking for handouts, and the census workers cooking the books to get as much representation for their area, we still lost the two seats.

Like rats from a sinking ship...
Get out while you can!

Anonymous said...

“The facilities have been in place for a long time, "

And they were paid for long ago.

Investigate the MTA.

Pay back the Westway funds, and start building more highway projects as such.