The bridge, tunnel and highway authorities are at it again, this time all at once. At press time, the Port Authority, New York State Thruway Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) all were planning to hit drivers with sharp toll increases. Perhaps with all the attention on Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan, bridge and highway authorities saw an opportunity to say goodbye to frugality.

In November, Thruway Authority officials unveiled plans for a 20-percent toll increase. Downstate, where bridge and tunnel tolls already exceed 400 percent of operating costs, the MTA had already held public hearings in preparation for another round of toll hikes.

The latest to pile on is the Port Authority, where officials were preparing a steep increase in toll rates in an apparent effort to “equalize” rates with Bloomberg’s proposed congestion-pricing plan.

Drivers are not opposed to paying their fair share and accept that some transit subsidy is necessary. And, in the post- 9/11 era, they appreciate the need to pay for increased security costs at bridges and tunnels. Nevertheless, both MTA and Port Authority tolls far exceed the expenses necessary to maintain the bridges and tunnels, and the surpluses they generate are disproportionately devoted to propping up mass transit and managing debt service.

In fact, of the $1 billion in toll revenue annually collected by the MTA, $700 million is earmarked for debt service and transit subsidies. At the same time, the authority also has not offered drivers any real service improvements for years.

While the diversion of Thruway toll money has been modest in comparison, that authority also seems to have lost its way. Since 1990, at the behest of public officials, the Thruway authority has spent $1 billion on upkeep and economic development projects along the canal system. This substantial revenue drain now prevents funding of important highway safety projects and has triggered the need for another toll hike, only two years after the previous one.

Not to be outdone in the rush to take drivers’ money, the Port Authority is pushing an unprecedented 60-percent increase in tolls, hiking them from $5 to $8 for rush-hour commuters. If the authority gets its way, commuters will pay hundreds of dollars in additional tolls to bankroll capital projects and the heavily subsidized PATH system.

Public authorities are like political bomb shelters—insular institutions designed to help elected officials hide from the fallout of unpopular toll hikes. Public officials also have used authorities to finance projects unrelated to mobility and to unconscionably underfund transportation systems with general tax dollars. Before they ask the public to toll their way out of past mistakes, the authorities need to return to elected officials for help to put their dysfunctional finances back in order.

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