Toll hikes take effect, to rip off everyone!

Nearly 89% of the tolls go to salary, toll booths and their access and quasi-governmental administration.

Gas taxes could cover the user fee maintenance and construction without the polemically motivated cash cow and buddy system hiring of 'skilled' toll-takers. It is an old form of government scam.

A big jump

At 6:30 a.m. Sunday, tolls went up 53 percent on the New Jersey Turnpike and 50 percent on the Garden State Parkway.

On the turnpike, the driver of a passenger car is paying an additional $1.10 per trip, on average, according to the Turnpike Authority. The peak rate for a passenger car to travel the entire length of the turnpike rose to $13.85 from $9.05.

On the parkway, the toll at most plazas on the main line of the road increased by 50 cents. The toll to travel the length of the parkway rose to $8.25 from $5.50.

Toll hikes take effect, help bring in out-of-state money - NorthJersey.com

LAST UPDATED: MONDAY JANUARY 2, 2012, BY MATTHEW MCGRATH STAFF WRITER THE RECORD

Tolls on the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike ramped-up about 50 percent Sunday morning, and the increases are partially designed to collect out-of-state motorists’ cash to help fund New Jersey infrastructure projects.

Drivers from points throughout the mid-Atlantic and New England, who stopped at the Montvale rest stop on the parkway and the Vince Lombardi rest stop on the turnpike, were largely upset with yet another increased cost in their already strapped budgets.

“I don’t like it,” said George Ward, of Elliot City, Md., who was on his way to Massachusetts to visit his daughter. “This isn’t the only thing; fuel is up on top of everything else. I don’t see how people are going to make it.”

When the hikes were proposed three years ago, the aim was to use out-of-state drivers’ wallets to partially fund New Jersey transportation construction projects.

At the time, then Governor Corzine said that a tax increase, such as a gas-tax hike, would disproportionately affect New Jersey residents, while a toll increase would be shared by New Jerseyans and out-of-state motorists who use the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway.

About half of turnpike tolls are paid by out-of-state drivers. [This is bull, they don't give a rat's tail where the money comes from, just so it comes.]

-read on at link-