In The News
New York Thruway hikes tolls twice
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Some state lawmakers say a recent decision to increase tolls on the New York Thruway by 10 percent in the next two years is nothing but a thinly disguised tax hike.
Worse, say officials like state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the toll hike comes just as gas and diesel prices are spiraling in the U.S.
Last week, the New York Thruway Authority Board of Directors voted to increase tolls by 5 percent in 2009 and another 5 percent again in 2010.
This comes just four months after a 10 percent toll hike -- first enacted in 2005 -- concluded on Jan. 1, 2008.
A 285-mile east-west trip on the Thruway from Albany to Buffalo currently costs a five-axle truck $52.16 with E-ZPass or $54.90 in cash. After the increases in 2010, the price will be $57.51 and $60.53, respectively.
According to local media, Erie Country State Assemblyman Mark Schroeder is so upset with the hike, that he is proposing that it's time the state abolished the NYS Thruway Authority.
The Thruway is the longest tolled highway in the U.S. at 641 miles.