NYS Thruway to hold hearing in Rockland on proposed hikes to tolls, EZ-Pass

The New York State Thruway Authority has made its case to raise tolls on its 570-mile highway from Buffalo to The Bronx. Now, the public is getting its turn to respond.

The Thruway Authority will hold a toll-related public hearing — the only in-person hearing planned in the Lower Hudson Valley — from 4 to 7 p.m. May 16 at the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack. It will be in the Adler Community Room, on the mall's fourth-floor, nearest to the entrance for Macy's.

Thruway spokeswoman Jennifer Givner said those expected on the panel are: Frank Hoare, Thruway interim executive director; Brent Howard, head of the Thruway's New York district, its busiest; Karen Osborn, chief financial officer; and Diana Nebiolo, who is the agency's new head of revenue management.

Speakers at the hearings must sign in and will be heard, for up to 5 minutes, in the order of their signing in. Written comments will also be accepted.

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$13.56 to cross the Hudson?

There's plenty to talk about.

Thruway governors in December moved forward with a plan for two system-wide 5% toll hikes and raising the New York EZ-Pass toll on the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge 50 cents a year for four years — from its current $5.75 to $7.75 in 2027.

And that's just the EZ-Pass rate for those with New York's cashless-tolling tags.

Those with out-of-state EZ-Pass tags, and those who pay by mail, would be charged a whopping $13.56 to cross from Rockland to Westchester on the twin-span bridge that replaced the Tappan Zee Bridge and ushered the Lower Hudson Valley into the realm of cashless tolling.

Part of the review process

Tuesday's hearing in West Nyack is part of the year-long process of public comment and governmental review, after which the Thruway board is expected to take a final vote, likely by year's end. Meanwhile, toll rates are frozen throughout 2023. If approved, the new tolls would take effect Jan. 1.

The governmental review, Givner said, involves the environmental impact of the toll hike: whether the increase is likely to change driver behavior so significantly that it has an impact on the environment. That review falls under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA.

Public hearings began Monday in Cheektowaga, and continued Tuesday in Syracuse. Givner said the Cheektowaga meeting drew three people, the Syracuse panel five.

After Rockland's hearing May 16, there will be a hearing May 22 in Glenmont, south of Albany, from 5 to 8 p.m. The final hearing will be virtual, on June 5, from 4 to 7 p.m.

Can't make the Thruway toll meeting? You can email your comments to tollcomments@thruway.ny.gov or mail them to: Toll Comments, c/o Legal Department, New York State Thruway Authority, 200 Southern Blvd., P.O. Box 189, Albany, NY 12201-0189.

Higher tolls, dwindling discounts

Under the toll-hike proposal, the NY E-ZPass rate to cross the Cuomo Bridge would rise 50 cents per year, beginning on Jan. 1, 2024, landing at $7.75 on Jan. 1, 2027.

There are discounts for regular NY E-ZPass commuters who make 20 or more trips per month and discounts for registered Westchester and Rockland residents who use NY E-ZPass. In 2021, more than 30% of all tolls collected on the Cuomo Bridge were discounted through commuter and resident plans, Thruway spokeswoman Jennifer Givner said.

Those vehicles without transponders have their license plates photographed and are billed at a higher rate through Tolls By Mail. And they'll be billed plenty, if this toll hike is approved. The Thruway would raise the Tolls By Mail rate differential — the amount paid above the NY E-ZPass rate — to 75% from 30%.

The proposal would also collapse into one the current two-tiered system for out-of-state drivers or those without transponders. Drivers who use other states' E-ZPass accounts currently pay a 15% differential, not the 30% for Tolls By Mail.

If the plan is approved, both would be charged the same 75% differential. For example, a driver from New Jersey who has a NJ E-ZPass account and crosses the Cuomo Bridge occasionally would see their toll more than double. Today, they would pay $6.61. By 2027, they would pay $13.56.

Sample tolls

Here's what a trip could cost you if you are driving from Nyack to Tarrytown in 2027, after the full effect of the tolls kicks in. (Tolls are collected for eastbound trips only.)

• If you are a NY EZ-Pass tagholder, a single trip would cost you $7.75.

• If you are registered Rockland or Westchester resident using NY EZ-Pass, you would pay $6.20. (A 20% discount, up from the current 17% discount.)

• If you are a registered commuter making more than 20 trips per month using NY EZ-Pass, you would pay $4.65. (A 40% discount.)

• If you don't use a NY E-ZPass tag or use Tolls by Mail, the same trip would cost $13.56. (The E-ZPass base rate of $7.75 plus the 75% differential of $5.81.)

System-wide toll hikes

The Cuomo Bridge tolls aren't the only ones that would rise. Tolls along the entire Thruway would rise 5% on Jan. 1, 2024 and another 5% on Jan. 1, 2027.

The Cuomo Bridge was the first part of the Thruway to roll out cashless tolling, in 2016, before the bridge was officially opened. Construction on the $4-billion bridge began in 2013, with the north span opening to westbound traffic in August 2017 and the south span opening to eastbound traffic in September 2018. The bridge was completed in 2020, when a shared-use bike-pedestrian path opened on the northern edge of the north span.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo named the bridge for his father, a former governor, drawing the ire of those on both sides of the Hudson River crossing. There have been petition drives, and bills introduced in Albany, to restore the name Tappan Zee Bridge, a nod to the native Tappan tribe and early Dutch settlers, who named the three-mile-wide stretch of the Hudson the Tappan Zee, "zee" being Dutch for "sea."

Reach Peter D. Kramer at pkramer@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: NYS Thruway to hold hearings on proposed hikes to tolls and EZ-Pass