N.J. highway plan would double tolls by 2023

The cost of driving the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway would more than double by 2023 under a proposal yesterday to pay for road widening and a commuter rail tunnel to New York.

The plan calls for raising turnpike tolls 50 percent next year and in 2012 and 5 percent in 2017 and 2023. Similar increases would bring the 35-cent toll on the parkway to 85 cents by 2023.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which runs both highways, outlined the hikes in a letter to Gov. Corzine.

A separate plan to increase tolls on the Atlantic City Expressway is in the works, according to a Corzine administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Corzine spokesman Sean Darcy said the plan "appears to be a significantly scaled back proposal that takes into account the state's need to address safety and congestion issues on New Jersey's roadways as well as the financial realities New Jerseyans face as a result of the national recession."

For a driver going from Exit 6 (for the Pennsylvania Turnpike) to Exit 4 (for Camden), the current $1.35 toll would rise to around $2 next year and about $3.30 by 2023.

A $1.20 trip on the turnpike, which transportation officials cite as the state average, would cost $3 after the final increase.

On the parkway, tolls would rise 15 cents next year, 25 cents in 2017, and 10 cents by 2023.

The authority would have to hold a public hearing before adopting the toll increases, and Corzine would have the final say.

Republicans have argued that rather than increase tolls, the state should cut spending in other areas and shift money to transportation.

"It's only been about two months since the governor and Democratic leadership in the Legislature trumpeted their role in passing the first budget on their six-year watch that didn't increase spending, taxes or fees. A fuel taxes or toll-hike proposal now will only prove they were never sincere about fiscal discipline in the first place," Senate Minority Leader Thomas H. Kean Jr. (R., Union) said in a statement.

The authority is not run by state government, but its chairman is Corzine's transportation commissioner, Kris Kolluri.

Transportation officials said the toll hikes were needed to pay for a $2.5 billion project to widen the turnpike between Exits 9 and 6 and an $800 million plan to expand the parkway between Exits 30 and 80. The proposal would also provide $1.25 billion for the planned tunnel to New York to relieve congestion in North Jersey, according to the authority letter.

"Although the board remains reluctant to burden motorists with a toll increase in this time of escalating fuel prices, the needs of these roadways, and the costs of meeting those needs, have increased exponentially since the previous toll increases," the six-person board wrote. "We can no longer afford to defer taking action."

Turnpike tolls last rose in 2000; the parkway cost was increased last in 1989. During the debate on toll hikes this year, administration officials argued that New Jersey's roads cost drivers far less per mile than those in nearby states, including Pennsylvania.

The authority wrote that without the toll increases, it couldn't guarantee that it would have enough money to pay its debts or pay for projects to improve safety and relieve congestion.

The proposal would address only transportation projects and not reduce state debt, a change seen as a key to public support.

Corzine called in January for an 800 percent toll increase over 15 years to pay for 75 years of transportation projects and halve the state's $32 billion debt. Lawmakers and the public balked.

"The governor heard the concerns voiced earlier this year about his original plan and realizes his proposal to pay down debt as part of a toll plan was too much for people across the state to accept. He feels strongly that any toll increase needs to be held to an absolute minimum," Darcy wrote in an e-mail.

Lawmakers, who kept their distance from Corzine's original plan, would not have to endorse the turnpike authority's proposal, but Corzine is still trying to win them over. He met with top Democrats for more than two hours yesterday morning before the proposal was announced.

"What the governor is doing is looking at the needs of the toll roads over the next 10 years, which is a very prudent thing to do, and the money has to come from somewhere," Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. (D., Camden) said after the meeting.