NY-NJ Port Authority plans $4 toll hike next month

NEW YORK — Tolls will be going up by $4 next month on the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels under a plan announced Aug. 5 by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Drivers who come into New York City from New Jersey at rush hour will be paying $12 a day _ even if they have an E-Z Pass. The off-peak toll will be $10. Without the pass, rush hour travel will cost $15. Trucks with E-Z Pass will pay $6 more per axle. The tolls will rise by an additional $2 in 2014, the Port Authority announced. The increase applies to all of the agency's bridge and tunnel crossings, which also include the Bayonne and Goethals Bridges and the Outerbridge Crossing between New Jersey and Staten Island. The Port Authority said that without a fare increase, it will be risking "240 critical infrastructure projects and thousands of jobs." It said the recession and security costs had left revenue $2.6 billion below projected amounts. The agency said rebuilding the World Trade Center is costing more than $11 billion, and its security costs are nearly three times the pre-9/11 level. The Port Authority also announced a $1 hike in the fare on the PATH train that connects New Jersey to Manhattan. It said the average PATH fare will be $2 with multi-trip discounts. The proposal is subject to approval by the Port Authority's board of commissioners, which is meeting Aug. 19. If the board approves the plan, it is subject to veto within 10 days by either Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York or Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, said authority spokesman Steve Coleman. The governors issued a joint statement saying they would review the proposal but have "obvious and significant concerns." "The Port Authority is facing financial issues but so are families in the states of New York and New Jersey," Christie and Cuomo said, "and the answer cannot always be an indiscriminate and exorbitant increase in the cost to the taxpayer, or in this case, toll payer." Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, said the proposal was "disproportionately punitive to New Jersey residents and fundamentally unfair." Nine public hearings, including one online, have been scheduled for one day _ Aug. 16. The Port Authority said the tolls are to go toward a new $33 billion 10-year capital plan that would include: _Replacing 592 "suspender ropes" on the George Washington Bridge. _Replacing the Lincoln Tunnel Helix, a spiraling approach to the New Jersey entrance. _Raising the Bayonne Bridge to end a problem with ships that are too tall to go underneath it. _Building a new bus garage at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. _Installing barriers and other security devices at the region's airports. _Replacing 340 PATH cars and upgrading PATH security. The Port Authority said the work would generate 167,000 jobs.