Truckers Insulted by 125 Percent Tax Increase in New York and New Jersey

Fast-Tracked Plan has left truckers with feelings

of betrayal .....

They vowed not to raise taxes....but, in a deal struck last Friday with the local port authority, the governors of New York and New Jersey have increased truck tolls by 125 percent and car tolls by 67 percent!

Unfortunately, only a fraction of the new revenue will be used to improve infrastructure, leaving truckers with feelings of betrayal with what has been described as a 'fast-tracked plan'.

Toll Bridge Increase

The plan includes a $40 truck toll on the George Washington Bridge, which will increase to $50 on September 1st, 2011.  After that, the truck rate will increase $10 each December from 2012 through 2015, finally capping at $90.  This amounts to a 125 percent truck toll increase by 2015 !

Cash Customers fare worse ...

And that’s for the E-ZPass customers. Cash customers will fare much worse. In addition to the $10 increase each year, cash customers will have to pay an additional “penalty” of $3 per axle, according to the agreement reached Friday, Aug. 19.

The final kicker is that just $9 billion of the proposed $33 billion in estimated new revenue will actually go to fix up the facilities. The rest goes into capital improvements and economic development that have little if anything to do with toll bridges.