Cuomo Against $14 Tappan Zee Toll

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The $14 toll proposed by the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for a new Tappan Zee Bridge is too high, the governor said on Friday.

It would nearly triple the current $5 toll on the existing bridge. When it was announced by the governor’s staff last week, it caused an outcry in the New York City suburbs that rely on the bridge.

“We must find alternatives, revenue generators and cost reductions that reduce the potential toll increases,” Mr. Cuomo said in a letter Friday to the State Thruway Authority.

In a radio interview on Friday, Mr. Cuomo sought to distance himself from the projections released a week earlier through his chief of staff and operations director.

“They have a projection of what the tolls could be,” Mr. Cuomo said on “Capitol Pressroom with Susan Arbetter.”

“At the end of the day,” he added, “we have to make tolls affordable.”

The governor has called for a task force to find ways to maximize federal support and to lower the cost of borrowing so the toll increase could be reduced by 2017, when the $5.2 billion bridge is expected to be finished.

Mr. Cuomo also suggested an expanded discount program for residents of Rockland and Westchester Counties, connected by the span over the Hudson River.

The projections from Mr. Cuomo’s aides last week included discounts for local commuters, but their toll would still have gone up to $8.40, from $3.

Until Friday, Mr. Cuomo and his administration had been defending the projected tolls. The estimates released last week said that even if no new bridge were built, tolls on the existing one would be $12 by 2017.

NY Times


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