Assemblyman Scott Rumana: EVEN FLEEING NEW JERSEY WILL COST MORE

NEW YORK CITY’S IMPENDING TOLL HIKES ON BRIDGES AND TUNNELS UNFAIRLY TARGET NEW JERSEY DRIVERS

Assemblyman Rumana has urged the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA, to reconsider next month’s discriminatory toll hikes on New Jersey drivers.

“New Jerseyans have endured an endless stream of illogical tax hikes from their own government and now they will be gouged by New York’s toll-hike scheme,” Rumana, R-Passaic, Bergen and Essex, and a member of the Assembly Transportation committee said today. “These toll hikes are an insulting extortion of New Jersey residents who work, dine and recreate in New York, which greatly benefits the economies of the city and state.”

Effective July 12, the MTA will raise tolls 10 percent, but the increase is effectively three times as much for drivers who purchased E-ZPass accounts from New Jersey because the MTA will no longer honor the discounts given to New York E-ZPass users for New Jersey drivers.

“I hope the MTA withdraws this policy, which may backfire and cause people to stay out of New York City,” Rumana said. “New Jersey residents have suffered enough tax and toll increases in their own state without being punished by their neighbors.”