Thruway tolls help pay for infrastructure

[WNYresident]

Full Story from www.buffalo.com

Thruway tolls help pay for infrastructure

12/21/2003

The effort by County Clerk David Swarts to have certain toll barriers removed from the New York State Thruway is ill advised, as was a recent News editorial supporting him.
Tolls provide a direct benefit to the traveling public in the form of capital projects and maintenance measures to keep the Thruway safe. The News is quick to bring up that the Thruway bonds should have been paid off in 1996, transforming the Thruway into a "free" road.

Well, there are no free roads and one must question where the revenue for maintenance would come from if not for tolls. The answer is simple - taxes. The State Legislature recognized this in 1992 and acted to maintain the Thruway's tolled operation.

While Swarts is not alone in classifying tolls as a "commuter tax," the classification is misleading. Those who travel the Thruway pay tolls and thus pay for the Thruway's maintenance. Eliminating just the Ogden and Black Rock toll barriers would cost $11 million annually. Funding for road maintenance projects is scarce enough, and Buffalo cannot afford to eliminate millions of dollars in dedicated revenue and still hope to complete other major capital projects.

Tolls also have a direct impact on the local economy in terms of jobs. The maintenance projects funded by tolls put hundreds of people on the job each construction season. If tolls were eliminated, capital spending and the jobs that go along with it would take a major blow.

I would encourage the county clerk to help ensure that our region's transportation infrastructure needs are met. Thruway tolls are a major piece of that puzzle.

LEONARD J. DEPRIMA
Chairman, Fair Apportionment
of Infrastructure Revenue
Orchard Park

Full Story from www.buffalo.com

[Curmudgeon]

Tolls provide a direct benefit to the traveling public in the form of capital projects and maintenance measures to keep the Thruway safe.

MOST other states in the nation don't have tools on their intestates. As we see on the news daily, people are dying by the thousands on those roads!

I have one question: How much is spent on the thruway system each year AND how much of that is spent on the "toll collection infrastructure"? That includes salaries,benefits, pensions of toll collectors, EZpass admin and equipment, tollbooth maintainence, admin & supervisor, etc....
Wouldn't you be pissed if you discovered 40% of your toll went to the administrative cost of collecting your toll????

It might be worth considering getting rid of a giant toll collection bureaucracy and funding our highways like the other states. Seems to work for them...

[WNYresident]

I have one question: How much is spent on the thruway system each year AND how much of that is spent on the "toll collection infrastructure"? That includes salaries,benefits, pensions of toll collectors, EZpass admin and equipment, tollbooth maintainence, admin & supervisor, etc....

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bingo... we should look into the lottery also.

[citymouse]

Problem is; the patronage and infasturcture that is setup to maintain these various departments is what makes NY state politics go around. The powers that be in Albany and NYC from both parties will not let that change in a million years.

[WNYresident]

THey have no choice if we end up with ONE more vote than they get. remember that.

[citymouse]

WNY is but a spot on the political fabric that makes up Albany.

[WNYresident]

I dont think albany even considers us a spot