Let's enjoy one more year of flat tolls. Come 2020, Rockland-to-Westchester commuters can expect the toll bill to come due, likely in a big way.
As 2019 dawns, we’re just a year away (maybe) from a much-anticipated, much-dreaded toll increase for the bridge across the Tappan Zee. How much will tolls rise? When? Who knows — well a few officials may, but we don't.
Tolls on the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, are frozen until “at least” 2020, according to the New York State Thruway. Does that mean tolls could go up Jan. 1, 2020 or mid-2020 or maybe even not at all? Shrug.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo likes to talk a lot about his pet project and its "innovative" design-build construction method that should keep down costs and speed up completion. (We don't know the final details on either of those yet, really.) But the cost for commuters who rely on the crossing? The governor doesn't talk much about that.
We could ask some of the members of a special Tolls and Financing Task Force. But that panel has still not met. Never. Not once. There are, according to Thruway officials, no plans yet for the task force to hold a meeting.
The stakes are high, for everyone.
The Thruway Authority relies heavily on toll revenue from the Tappan Zee crossing, which, for decades, provided about one-fifth of the agency's operating revenue for its 570-mile system. During the construction of the new bridge, which is reported to cost $3.9 billion, all kinds of techniques have been used to help boost the Thruway Authority's bottom line, from moving the money-losing Canal Corporation to the New York Power Authority to giving bank settlement payouts to the authority. While the feds provided a record $1.6 billion worth of super-low-interest loans, they are still loans.
Toll revenue will, sooner or later, be a main mechanism for funding the Thruway Authority and paying off the bridge construction costs.
The future cost of Cuomo Bridge tolls will surely impact real estate values in Rockland and likely Orange County as well.
Tolls are now $5 for eastbound/southbound cars, or $4.50 with an E-Z Pass (which everyone should have, especially as the thruway is now tollbooth-free and a missed payment can cause huge fines).
Another consideration for tolls: Trucks. The thruway corridor, with connections to Interstates 95, 84 and 287, provides a conduit for Northeast and New England commerce.
Commercial tolls on the Tappan Zee were supposed to go up a whopping 45 percent back in 2012. Amid pressure from the industry, the Thruway Authority reneged and tolls have remained the same since. So, a five-axle truck pays $24.75 during peak times on the Cuomo Bridge, with some off-peak rates as low as $16.38; on the GW, that same truck would pay $90 peak and $85 off-peak. (These are all E-Z Pass prices).
Wonder why the I-287 corridor through Westchester and Rockland always seems so clogged?
Then there's the cashless tolling mess. This month, the Thruway Authority announced all its fixed-price toll collection sites are 100 percent cashless. But the system's far from perfect — missed tolls revenue had cost millions at various cashless crossings even before the Tappan Zee switch.
Before making the Tappan Zee all-cashless, the authority prepared for toll losses by hiking fines and supposedly streamlining the collection process by linking it to vehicle registrations through the DMV.
Scores of commuters either missed or never received notifications. Many ended up with thousands in overdue fines; in some cases, vehicles were impounded on the spot for yanked registrations due to toll debts.
The Thruway's made improvements, but a bill called the Toll Payer Protection Act still awaits Cuomo's signature. Some fairness is due tollpayers. Cuomo should sign the legislation by its Dec. 31 deadline.
The bridge has benefits: The new dual-span crossing adds reliability by replacing an undersecure overtaxed roadway that could come to a halt after just a minor fender-bender. Yes, traffic still stacks up along the I-287/thruway corridor each morning heading east and each evening heading west. But special bus lanes and breakdown shoulders (only, so far, on eastbound lanes) and turnarounds (not yet functional) are designed to make traffic more predictable, even if it remains slow.
Let's not forget the constant cost of maintaining the old bridge that handled much more traffic than intended, was made on the cheap and didn't meet the security needs of a post-9/11 world.
What's that worth? An extra couple bucks a day? Double what drivers pay now? Triple?
Let's enjoy a new year of flat tolls. Come 2020, though, expect the toll bill to come due, likely in a big way.