A proposed 45% increase in truck tolls on the New York State Thruway could have “damaging effects” on consumers and businesses struggling to recover from the recession, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.
In an analysis of the proposed toll increase released last week, DiNapoli said that instead of increasing truck tolls, the thruway authority should cut costs and find other ways to raise revenue.
Under the proposed toll rate schedule unveiled in May, a five-axle truck now paying $68.95 to run the length of the road would pay almost $100.
Meanwhile, a $5.4 billion plan to build a new Tappan Zee bridge in New York was approved Monday by a New York State transportation board, the Associated Press reported.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a letter of intent to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, after the vote to formally apply for the funds to build the new bridge, according to the governor’s website.
The letter initiates the state’s application for funding under the federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act.
The current bridge is 55 years old and carries Interstate 87 and Interstate 287 traffic stretching three miles across the river to connect Nyack in Rockland County on the west bank, to Tarrytown in Westchester Country, on the east bank.
