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Cuomo & Christie Feigning Outrage About Port Authority's 50% Toll Hike?
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 7, 2011
Modified Aug 7, 2011
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 7, 2011
Modified Aug 7, 2011
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Commuters weren't happy about the Port Authority's obscene plan to raise tolls 50%, but now Governors Cuomo and Christie—who sit on the PA's board—are crying foul, saying they weren't told of the move despite reports that they had "confidentially signaled their grudging support." A source tells the Post that Cuomo was "shocked and less than pleased" about the proposal, which would hike E-ZPass holders' tolls up to $12 from $8 and cash tolls to $15 from $8. PATH commuters would pay an extra $1 a trip. But how much of this outrage is political theater?
"No one who has looked at our finances thinks we're exaggerating," a PA official tells the paper. Indeed the agency has been under significant financial strain in the face of the planned transit hub at the Word Trade Center site, new airport terminals and bridge maintenance work, and have been bickering with the National September 11th Memorial over $150 million. The PA has even threatened to default on their bonds, which could "trigger a massive financial fallout."
But 50% hikes are politically untenable for both Governors and Albany's Transportation Committee, whose chairman, Senator Charles Fuschillo, told the Daily News that the hike was "both absurd and insulting," and is vowing to investigation. Most likely, fares will raise incrementally in the middle so the pols can save face. "We're not idiots, we know how this works," one source in the Bloomberg administration tells the Post.
Tagged
9/11 memorial
Albany
bridges
budget
E-ZPass
path
port authority
tolls
world trade center
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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