Twenty-two business groups have formed a coalition to oppose the 45% toll increase for trucks proposed by the New York State Thruway Authority.
The coalition represents more than 15,000 companies — from farms and grocery stores, to fuel suppliers, lumber mills and manufacturers — the group said in a statement announcing its formation.
If tolls increase 45%, a five-axle truck now paying $68.95 to run the 570-mile Thruway could pay $99.98.
The Thruway is demonstrating “total disregard” for what the toll increase would do “to consumers, how it will impact communities along alternate routes and what it will do to the economy of New York,” said Kendra Adams, president of the New York State Motor Truck Association, which helped create the coalition.
The Thruway has scheduled public hearings on the toll proposal it unveiled May 30.
They will be: Aug. 16 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library in Buffalo; Aug. 17 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Double Tree Hilton in East Syracuse; and Aug. 18 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Hilton Garden Inn in Newburgh.
Comments, which are due by Aug. 24, may be e-mailed to tollcomments@thruway.ny.gov or sent to: Toll Comments, c/o Legal Department, New York State Thruway Authority, 200 Southern Blvd., P.O. Box 189, Albany, NY 12201-0189.
