Posted on 08/18/2011 4:23:37 PM PDT by GreaterSwiss
Gov. Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have signed off on $1.50 toll hikes for all Port Authority crossings that’ll go into effect next month, sources said.
The final fare hikes are far lower than the ones the Port Authority rolled out last month, which called for a $4 increase on most crossings and were met with widespread disgust by politicians and the public.
Christie and Cuomo are also calling for an audit of the agency.
The new $1.50 hikes will apply to cash and EZ-Pass customers on all the Port Authority’s bridges and tunnels.
Cash payers will also be hit with another $.50 cent surcharges.
Under the new plan, a cash diver would typically pay $10 coming into Manhattan on a Port Authority crossing, up from the current $8.
The PATH train fares will also increase, up to $2.00 from $1.75.
The old plan called for PATH hikes up to $2.75, more than the cost of the subway.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
But, Dean Wormer, you forgot to mention being DRUNK, too!
I would argue that toll roads/bridges/tunnels are much closer to the conservative ideal than “free” roads/bridges/tunnels. Under a toll scenario, the actual expense of the infrastructure is more closely born by those using it. In this case, why should residents of South Jersey or even Central Jersey be forced to pay for maintenance of infrastructure that serves Manhattan?
From a pure market perspective, the tolls most likely could have been raised far more than just the $1.50. Remember, you are only charged a toll to LEAVE New Jersey. Never to come into the state. I think we all would pay whatever it costs to get out of that state ;-)
The Governors also want an audit to be done, instead of getting an independent agency to do the audit they said it’s OK that the Port Authority does the audit themselves.
Well Christie has turned RINO-DEMOCRAT and will never get my vote again. Today he called conspiracy nuts anyone who believes that first they told people it would be a $7 toll hike then they changed it to $4.50 so we’d be grateful. They only do it everytime.
Then:
“Chris Christie made clear he falls in the Jon Huntsman camp as opposed to the Rick Perry camp on the scientific-political issue of the week in the Republican primary:
In vetoing a bill (S2946) that would have required New Jersey to stay in a regional program intended to curb greenhouse gases — a program Christie plans to leave by the end of the year — the governor said “climate change is real.”
He added that “human activity plays a role in these changes” and that climate change is “impacting our state.”
On the other hand, I recognize and respect what he is doing. He's a man loyal to his own state, willing to do what is necessary to prevent his state from fiscally imploding - something that was near-imminent when he was sworn in. He's making hard, unpopular choices that may well in the final analysis be the best of a crop of bad choices for his state; the financial legacy of the Democrats in New Jersey - which Christie inherited with a clear popular mandate to fix the problem - was breathtaking. And it's rather refreshing that he appears not to want to be re-elected at all.
I do wish more politicians would take this approach, where holding office is a means to actually get something accomplished, and not just a means to continue to hold office.
Thats not the point. I’m not comparing a 1.50 toll hike to romneycare per se. The point is that people, voters outside of Christie’s state, will indeed make an issue of this toll hike same way they make an issue out of many other things inside the states of various politicians.
I’d vote for Christie in a heartbeat. I wish he was here in Illinois. Let’s not be knee-jerk about it, OK?
New details are leaking. For trucks it’s a $45 toll increase!
ash tolls on a 5-axle tractor trailer — the type of truck commonly used to make deliveries — will increase from $40 to $65 starting next month, eventually climbing to a whopping $105 per trip in 2015.
“Disappointed would be putting it lightly,” said Kendra Adams, president of the New York State Motor Truck Association. “We’re irate.”
The rest of the city will be soon enough, as 90 percent of goods sold in the Big Apple are brought in by truck, she said.
“You’re going to see increases in clothing, medical supplies, food,” she said.
Big Apple businesses — already paying exorbitant fees to have their goods trucked in — are preparing for the worst.
“People tell me, ‘How come in Jersey a gallon of milk is $3 and here it’s $4?’ ” said Ottavio Mannarino, who manages Frank and Eddie’s Meats on 86th Street in Bay Ridge.
The answer is simple.
Much of his stock comes from New Jersey via Staten Island and is slapped with a $177 delivery fee, which partly covers the tolls.
Christie is proving to be more Scott Brown than Sarah Palin. I think he’d be an unmitigated disaster as a Presidential candidate. He’s very thin skinned and is much too quick to attack those who elected him with pejoratives worthy of the Democrat attack machine. Let him stay in NJ where he can at least do some good in spite of his faults.
I live in Oregon and I DO care about what happens to you guys out on the East Coast. We are all in this progressive-nightmare-hell-on-earth together, and together we must fight and care about each other.
I have friends who are Muslim. You’ll have to forgive me for not going into the deep end just because he supported a Muslim judge. Not all Muslims are whack jobs, just as not all Catholics (which I am one) are saintly, law abiding citizens.
Vaquero, there are many people out there that don’t fit the “conservative” requirement here on FreeRepublic. Ronald Reagan would be ostracized here.
I used to love this site, but it’s so ridiculous in the purity people look for in their leaders now, that they throw everyone out with the bath water. There is no such thing a solely conservative politician, at least not one that can get elected. I’m more than willing to take someone like Chris Christie over the nutjob we have now. Unfortunately all too many people here at FR make it an all or nothing proposition, and that’s why we get complete whackjobs like O’Donnell, Angle, etc running in some of these elections. By doing so, we re-elect people like Harry Reid.
I’m a pragmatist ExSoldier. He’s a Republican governor in a Democrat state. You have to choose your battles. He’s not an emperor, you can’t just turn over laws at your whim. That means getting his state legislature to agree to changing the laws.
That is reality. It seems you would rather have a guy that does nothing but push for the repeal of gun laws, meaning he would never get elected in New Jersey and thus NO reforms of any other kind could ever happen (unions, minimum wage, etc, etc). But hey, you would get some guy to say he wanted to repeal gun laws...a lot of good that would do considering he would never get elected in that state.
Common sense 101
Have all the muslims friends you want. I wouldn’t vote for you, either. It isn’t just the judge. He’s all for the Ground Zero mosque. Islam will destroy America just like it has many parts of Europe. Why would you trust a muslim? Read Gert Wilders and Daniel Pipes and you will understand.
I'll drink to that!!! And I say this as I know that I am going to be dealing with them on the way to Chincoteague this afternoon.
I trust people....I don’t trust religions. I know some complete idiot Catholics, Baptists, etc. Just as I know some Muslims I’d like to put through a meet grinder. I also have the intellectual capacity to realize painting people with broad strokes is ignorant.
People trusted Maj. Hasan and the “informant” who blew away all those CIA agents in Afghanistan. It ain’t the Catholics, Methodists or Baptists trying to kill Americans (in spite of what Sister Janet says). There may be some American-loving muslims, but the question is, do they love the koran more?
People trusted Catholic Priests, too. Are all Catholic priests pedophiles? I’m sorry, but you paint way to broad a brush on this stuff. I’m as concerned about Muslims fanatics as anyone. I think they should be scrutinized more than others, that’s just good police work. That’s just playing it smart. I hold the line, however, in pre-judging a man or woman of that faith to say they are incapable of being law abiding, God fearing, wonderful human beings.
That’s what separates you from me.
I get where you are coming from, but if it came down to Obama and Christie...I’m voting for Christie even if that means he “isn’t conservative enough.” Want to know why? Because he’s a LOT more conservative than Obama will ever be in his lifetime.
So I don’t play these games and say things like “I’ll never vote for such and such” because it all depends who “such and such” are running against.
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