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Comptroller comes out against Thruway toll hike
Sunday, January 27, 2008
The Associated Press

BUFFALO — The New York state comptroller says the Thruway Authority should call off a toll hike that the agency planned to apply in July.
Thomas DiNapoli released his audit of the Thruway Authority and says the agency should put off creating any future hikes until it's had a chance to conduct an analysis of its expenses, operations and projects.
The audit examined the calculations used in justifying proposed toll increases in July 2008, January 2009, July 2009 and January 2010.
The agency's board of directors had endorsed the spending plans based on the roughly $375 million officials said the higher tolls would bring in through 2011 and pushed ahead with the toll-hike proposal.

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CAPITOL
Audit critical of toll hikes
DiNapoli: Authority should cut costs, defer some projects
The Associated Press

The New York state comptroller released a report Sunday urging the state Thruway Authority to call off a toll hike that the agency planned to apply in July.
Thomas DiNapoli’s audit of the Thruway Authority says the agency should put off creating any future hikes until it’s had a chance to conduct a thorough analysis of its expenses, operations and projects.
    “The Thruway is too important to the upstate economy to unnecessarily raise tolls and drive up the cost of everything from milk to heating oil, not to mention the impact on commuters,” Di-Napoli said in a written statement. “The Thruway Authority manages the roads well, but it could manage its finances a whole lot better.”
    “We believe the audit as a whole indicates that we do need a toll increase,” said Michael Fleischer, executive director of the Thruway Authority.
    The audit examined the calculations used in justifying proposed toll increases in July 2008, January 2009, July 2009 and January 2010.
    The agency’s board of directors had endorsed the spending plans based on the roughly $375 million officials said the higher tolls would bring in through 2011.
    DiNapoli’s report included a number of recom- mendations, including: cutting costs; using a collection agency to collect unpaid E-Z Pass tolls; prioritizing capital projects; and deferring some temporarily.
    The agency is reducing positions and trying to reduce costs, Fleischer said. The Thruway Authority has also controlled its growth at 3.2 percent — a slower rate than the state government, he said.
    “We disagree with the financial impact of the recommendations. . . . We believe it would be just a fraction of the revenue necessary to continue making the proper investments in the highway,” Fleischer said.
    The comptroller’s audit suggested budgeting for increased federal aid — indicating the agency had estimated receiving only $4.9 million in federal highway funds per year. DiNapoli’s report argues that the authority could “conservatively estimate” an additional $125.3 million in federal funding between 2008 and 2012.
    But Fleischer said that money comes in through the Department of Transportation, and if it was directed to the authority it would come at the expense of the DOT or local programs.
    The comptroller plans to continue auditing the Thruway Authority’s operations and finances this year.
    Until 2005 the Thruway Authority has increased tolls sporadically: in 1959, 1970, 1975, 1980 and 1988. Since 2005 the thruway has increased tolls twice and has proposed four more hikes.
    The most recent toll hike, implemented earlier this month, could have been avoided, DiNapoli said.
    But the money that increase will bring was already guaranteed to pay for $2 billion the Thruway Authority has borrowed.
    DiNapoli also recommended removing the canal system from the Thruway Authority’s operations and developing a long-term solution for financing it.

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The comptroller’s audit suggested budgeting for increased federal aid — indicating the agency had estimated receiving only $4.9 million in federal highway funds per year. DiNapoli’s report argues that the authority could “conservatively estimate” an additional $125.3 million in federal funding between 2008 and 2012.

SHOW ME THE $$ TRAIL....here's a circle jerk.....

http://www.timesunion.com

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Now they are blaming uncollected tolls via EZPass.....Well, that's what happens when we remove the actual physical payment at the window.....pretty soon NYS will require the EZPass boxes that are in the cars to be attached to the wheels via the car manufacturers if car sold in NYS, that lock up when bill not paid......

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Thruway audit: So what else is new?

    State officials from Gov. Eliot Spitzer on down have been applauding Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s audit of state Thruway finances, which criticized the recent toll hike and suggested that ones the authority wants in each of the next several years are unnecessary. No big surprise on the audit, or to the reaction at the Capitol. Now let’s see if lawmakers can act accordingly and apply appropriate pressure on Thruway officials, so the audit will prove to be more than an exercise in futility.
    Basically, the audit confirmed what New Yorkers have long suspected about the Thruway operation: It’s not as efficient as it could be. Not only does management not require its employees to pay tolls when they use the 641-mile highway, it has let a lot of other motorists off the hook as well (to the tune of $27 million, including fees, between 2000 and 2005). More than 60 percent of its tolls are now collected electronically, via E-ZPass, yet the authority has only reduced the size of its toll collection staff 35 percent since E-ZPass was introduced.
    When it comes to federal highway aid, the audit suggested the authority has been far more conservative than necessary, underestimating future revenue by at least $100 million. That number alone would greatly reduce the need for the toll hikes authority chief Michael Fleischer has recommended over the next few years.
    Running a highway of this magnitude isn’t easy, and while using tolls (paid by out-of-staters as well as New York residents) is preferable to having taxpayers finance the upkeep, there have to be reasonable limits or the outsiders will find other routes. That would be bad not just for upstate commerce, but for motorists as well.

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With bonds paid off, Thruway tolls should have gone down

    In the 1950s, when I would travel on the Thruway with my father, he would tell me how this great road would be toll-free when the bonds to build it were paid off.
    As an adult and seeing the bond come to an end, I knew it would never happen, as the Thruway Authority was just too big; with E-ZPass, it grew some more, and then the canal was added and it just got bigger. Just too many jobs to simply disappear. With I-88, I-81 and the Northway all being toll-free, to say the Thruway needs the tolls for upkeep is not true. With $550 million in tolls and $25 million uncollected, there is just too much money and too many people involved. What should happen since the bonds have been paid off is that the portion of the toll that paid for the bonds should go away, and tolls should be going down.
    Like a mortgage on a house when it’s paid in 30 years, that part of your annual expense goes away, and you are only left with insurance, taxes and upkeep. Your amount spent goes down, not up.
    E.A. COOK
    Charlton

E.A.Cook must hear that sucking sound too and has seen the monkey on NYS's back.....what are they called?--yup, criminals......

With the recent increase in tolls, I have reduced my use of the New York State Thruway and decreased the resulting revenues to the Thruway Authority.  Prior to January 1st, I commuted each weekday between Exit 25A and Exit 23 (Albany).  I now exit the highway at Exit 24 (Albany) and travel I-90 to my destination.  I preferred Exit 23 because the traffic flowed better through the toll booths.  But, in protest of the 10% toll increase, I choose to exit the highway sooner despite the slight delay and minor inconvenience.

On weekends, I take Route 20 from Duanesburg to Guilderland and Albany and avoid use of the NYS Thruway entirely.

Those who wish to protest the toll increases have many choices including:

• Varying one's route to utilize thoroughfares for which there are no tolls.
  
• Participate in a car pool.
  
• Take public transportation.
  

We all have choices.  Those who are displeased with the toll hike should protest by withholding their dollars (or coin).

Amen, Brad.  I, too, have a similar commute and have altered my route with each successive toll hike.

Which would essentially mean that less traveled roads need less repair-hence a decrease in tolls????----yeah that would be the day.....anyone ever hear of a repealed tax? other than the boston tea party??

I know two people that travel from Rotterdam to New Scotland Ave near the Albany Med/St.Peters area. From Rotterdam, one takes the thruway and the other Rt 20 to Manning to New Scotland. They both clocked the same milage and got there almost at the same time. I think the thruway guy got their just a minute or two earlier.

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CAPITOL
Lawmakers criticize another toll hike plan
BY RICHARD RICHTMYER The Associated Press

    The state Thruway Authority is expected to vote today on a new round of toll hikes that would start this summer.
    The plan is to phase in a pair of 5 percent hikes for those paying cash at the toll booths and what amounts to an increase as high as 28 percent for some drivers who use the EZ-Pass electronic toll collecting system.
    The hikes would begin in July and continue through January 2010. They would come on top of a 10 percent increase that took effect this year.
    Thruway managers say the increases are needed because too few drivers have been paying to use the 641-mile superhighway to cover the cost of a $2.1 billion highway and bridge repair plan. They expect the toll increases to raise $375 million through 2011.
    Since Thruway officials floated the toll hike plan in November, there has been an outcry across the state and among lawmakers in Albany, many of them arguing that raising tolls could squelch an already slowing upstate economy.
    State Comptroller Thomas Di-Napoli also released an audit last winter urging the Thruway Authority to call off the increases and instead carefully review its finances for ways to cut costs.
    DiNapoli reiterated that position Thursday.
    “Transportation costs are driving up the price of everything from flour and milk to lumber and sheetrock,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “The last thing New Yorkers need now is another tax increase disguised as a toll hike.”
    Some of the Thruway Authority’s board members say they’ve been frustrated by the public pressure to nix the hikes.
    Neither the Legislature nor the governor control the agency, which was created to be independent and is funded primarily through toll collections. But board members complain that the state has saddled the agency with additional costs.
    They point in particular to the state’s Canal Corp., which the Legislature folded into the Thruway Authority in 1992. DiNapoli’s audit found that the canal system will account for $395 million in costs through 2012.
    Kevin Plunkett, a Thruway Authority board member from Hudson Valley, said he’s reviewed all of the analysis and heard all of the arguments and plans to vote in favor of the toll hikes.
    “With the burden of the Canal Corp.’s budget and the capital improvements that are necessary on the bridges and roadways, these adjustments are warranted,” he said.
    Buffalo-area board member Jeffrey Williams said he plans to vote against the increases, which he believes would force the Legislature and the Thruway Authority to work together on the issue.
    “It wouldn’t compromise public safety because we’d shift our priorities in the Thruway Authority and live within our means,” Williams said. “People find creative solutions when they’re cash strapped, and I haven’t seen a creative solution yet.”

Let's see .. raise the tolls, customers down and we can't afford to do the work - So, let's raise the tolls some more!

Ya, makes sense.

Sounds like the way Metroplex is headed.