Starve The Beast: Roll Back The Port Authority Toll Hikes

Given the results of the audit of Port Authority released earlier this week, it is fair to conclude that PA has been overcharging New Jersey commuters and truckers for decades.

Too much money has been the addictive substance that made PA “dysfunctional.” 

Lack of money is what has enabled Governor Christie, and many other governors across the country to implement necessary reforms.  Christie is extraordinarily talented, but would he have been able to get the Democrats to compromise with him if tax revenue was rolling in with abundance?  No way.

Yet, with the September toll hikes, Governors Christie and Cuomo have helped the the dysfunctional, wasteful, corrupt Pork Authority to more of their destructive substance.

New Jersey Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen County) and New York State Senator Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) have called for the latest toll hikes to be rolled back, according to The Star Ledger.

At the very least, tolls should be rolled back to their pre-September levels until the ongoing audit of PA is complete and reforms implemented.  A rollback to the 2001 toll levels should be seriously considered.

Phase two of the toll increases announced last August take effect in 2014.  Christie and Cuomo should immediately revoked that authorization and roll back the current tolls to the September 2011 levels, at the very least.

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Port Authority Retirees Suing For Free Tolls And Damages

Thomas Westfield, a Morris County attorney who began practicing law after retiring from the Port Authority Police Department, has filed a class action suit against the Pork Authority seeking to reinstate free tolls and parking for retirees and $2000 per class member for as long as the benefits have been rescinded. There are at least 400 class members, according to a report at New Jersey Law Journal.

Westfield admits that the loss of benefits cost him no particular hardship, just the annonyance of having to pay tolls when going to an occasional Yankee game.  He also said he doesn’t know how often class members use the Hudson River crossings or park at the agency’s three airports.

Westfield, 65, has retired from the full time practice of law.

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