Toll-Tax hikes take effect 12/1/08
And that's only round 1. Set to more than double in 4 years!
Turnpike |
Parkway |
Majority |
|
Pre Dec. 1, 2008 |
$1.20 (+ gas tax) |
$0.35 (+ gas tax) |
gas tax |
Current |
$1.70 (+ gas tax) |
$0.50 (+ gas tax) |
gas tax |
2012 |
$2.60 (+ gas tax) |
$0.75 (+ gas tax) |
gas tax |
Don't forget, toll road drivers pay gas tax too.
The tax burden to drive on most roads is measured in pennies per trip.
The tax burden to drive on toll roads is measured in dollars per trip.
...Yet they think toll road drivers are the ones that need a tax hike.
CAT Letter to the Editor
Manasquan, NJ – December 1, 2008
To the Editor:
The Corzine Administration's disgraceful railroading through of the toll road increases does not fool any thinking taxpayer. We recognize it to be just what it is -- it's about "pork", not projects. It's about Corzine sidestepping responsibility and hiding behind the Authority, rather than facing up to real solutions for fiscal problems. It's about the Governor's all-time low approval rating in the face of his need to ready his re-election campaign!
Public participation in the process was almost non-existent -- "public" hearings were held to a minimum and scheduled at inconvenient times and places which worked well to hamper citizens' ability to attend such hearings. But, for those who could attend and who gave valid alternatives to toll increases, it was an exercise in futility -- Authority Commissioners already had their minds made up!
Not since the days of the Florio Administration have the taxpayers of New Jersey been so ignored. And as former Governor Florio was held accountable for his famous "toilet paper tax", Governor Corzine should be held accountable for the toll tax travesty. Users of toll roads -- a very limited segment of the driving population -- will now have to shoulder the cost of proposed transportation projects. Truck and commercial drivers will desert the Turnpike to flood local streets in their ongoing effort to deliver goods in the face of rising costs. Local governments will be hard pressed to find revenue to keep up with wear and tear on local roads.
.
This is not responsible representation of the taxpayers. It is the imposition of greedy objectives on already-hard-pressed citizens. No elected representative with such objectives that so blatantly ignore the Public good should be returned to office!
