N.J. Officials Vote to Raise Highway Tolls Up to 36% for Improvements

(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey highway commissioners voted to raise tolls as much as 36% to support a $24 billion capital program amid criticism that a thorough public vetting was upended by coronavirus social-distancing precautions.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority long-term capital plan, more than three times the amount approved in 2008, would pay for widening and other changes to the Garden State Parkway and the 117-mile (188-kilometer) New Jersey Turnpike, key to northeastern U.S. travel and commerce.

Starting in September, turnpike tolls would go up 36%, to an average $4.80 per motorist. The maximum for a passenger vehicle would rise $5, to $18.85. Parkway charges would increase 27%, to an average $1.11. The maximum would rise $2.20, to $10.45.

The South Jersey Transportation Authority, which oversees the 44-mile Atlantic City Expressway, which runs from the Philadelphia suburbs to the oceanside casino resort, also is scheduled to vote Wednesday on toll increases The higher charges in part would go toward a $500 million light-rail project.

Plans for all three highways call for automatic annual increases capped at 3%. Governor Phil Murphy can veto the new charges, but he expressed support for the spending at a Trenton news conference, calling the improvements “a huge boost.”

“Idling will go down dramatically,” with environmental benefits from reduced emissions, the governor said. Additions of electric-vehicle charging stations at rest areas, part of the capital-spending plan, also will help New Jersey’s infrastructure for such automobiles to keep up with their brisk sales, he said.

The Turnpike Authority commissioners met by telephone group call, inviting comments from listeners. The practice also has been adopted by the state legislature and local governments since in-person meetings were disallowed March 21, when Murphy ordered social distancing to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. More than 11,000 people have died of the virus in New Jersey, whose case volume among U.S. states is second only to New York’s.

“A public hearing in the middle of a pandemic, when people couldn’t get to it, is the height of arrogance,” Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, said during the call. The roads’ widening, he said, will add 100 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, and eliminate any projected clear-air gains linked to electric vehicles.

Labor groups praised the move as a congestion reliever and job creator amid 15.3% state unemployment.

“We need to have infrastructure repairs done,” Barry Kushnir, president of IFTPE Local 194, which represents turnpike office, maintenance and toll workers.

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