Another free pass for toll dodgers on Thruway

Judy Rife Times Herald-Record
Construction continues on the Thruway near South Nyack, where a temporary all-electronic toll collection system for the Tappan Zee Bridge will be built. ROBERT G. BREESE/TIMES HERALD-RECORD

ALBANY – For the second year, state lawmakers have removed legislation that would levy stiffer penalties on toll scofflaws from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget, raising the possibility of substantial revenue losses at the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Ron Thaniel, the governor’s new deputy secretary for transportation, said Cuomo will continue to work with lawmakers to win the legislation’s passage.

“In recent years, toll cheaters in New York have failed to pay a total of $150 million in tolls, and those who don’t pay unfairly increase the burden on those who do,’’ said Thaniel in a statement.

The legislation, drafted in concert with the state’s four toll agencies, would provide for the automatic suspension of vehicle registrations for failure to pay tolls five times in an 18-month period – a faster, easier and cheaper alternative than pursuing drivers through civil or criminal court actions.

It is a priority for the New York State Thruway Authority, which will introduce all-electronic tolling at the TZB as soon as January to facilitate construction of its $3.9 billion replacement.

The equipment is being installed now, adjacent to the eastbound lanes in South Nyack, in preparation for the demolition of the toll plaza in Tarrytown, the site for the landing of the north span of the new two-span bridge.

The equipment for all-electronic tolling, or AET, consists of antennas and cameras on overhead gantries to process E-ZPass payments and photograph licenses plates of vehicles without E-ZPass accounts so that their owners can be identified and sent toll bills in the mail.

High stakes

Without stiffer penalties for drivers who ignore bills in the mail, the authority stands to lose millions of dollars at the TZB, the source of 20 percent of its toll revenue, or $135 million a year. Legislators approved Cuomo’s bid to give the authority $1.285 billion from the state’s windfall $5.4 billion settlement with wayward banks to support the new TZB’s construction and other Thruway projects – and now, potentially, to cover losses in toll revenue.

Currently, the state’s only AET program is the trial balloon that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority floated at the Henry Hudson Bridge in November 2012 in anticipation of the legislation’s swift approval.

The program has accumulated more than $4.5 million in unpaid toll bills - and $44 million in violation and late fees – through December. Put another way, payment of toll bills is 68.5 percent at a bridge with an E-ZPass penetration of 94 percent and an average weekday volume of 63,500 vehicles.

In contrast, only 80 percent of the roughly 134,000 vehicles that cross the TZB every day have E-ZPass. Toll evasion is estimated at $5,000 every day.

“I am disappointed,’’ said Sen. David Carlucci, D-Clarkstown, of the Legislature’s failure to act. “It’s time we recoup the money that is owed, so that law-abiding citizens do not share this burden alone.”

Carlucci, who has introduced parallel legislation to Cuomo’s in the Senate transportation committee two years running, has also promoted a crackdown on cheats as putting New York in tandem with the toll industry’s transition to AET to curb air pollution and congestion and control costs.

The senator, despite his optimism that lawmakers will act before they adjourn is June, has been unable to secure an Assembly sponsor, both last year and so far this year.

“I’m not sure there’s disagreement as much as there are questions,” said Assemblyman James Skoufis, D-Woodbury, a member of the Assembly transportation committee. “I’m surprised they’ve (the administration) seen the resistance and haven’t reached out to open a dialogue with us.”

Skoufis said an argument could be made that the Thruway Authority has put the cart before the horse on AET, but added it was still “absolutely time” that the legislation is addressed.

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