I was invited to testify to the Assembly Republicans concerning the proposed toll increase and the Grand Island Toll issue. I would like to be there today but I did not know about this public hearing until today Tuesday, Dec 11th. I could not change my schedule to give me the time.

Last year alone the New York State Department of Transportation applied for and received $1.4 Billion from the Federal government Highway Fund. Those dollars are paid for by us in the 19 cents a gallon gasoline tax. The D.O.T. applied for all the (I’s) interstate road system including the 671 miles of Thruway, the I- 84 and the I- 287. Approx $400 Million should have been allocated to the Thruway system yet none of it did. Had that money made it they could have cut the tolls in half through out the thruway system. Instead we are looking at toll increases for the next 3 years and that is no longer acceptable. So in this one suggestion we see $480 million dollars in savings.

Now to the Grand Island Tolls at the bridges.

I represent almost 8000 petition signers from the Niagara Frontier, nogitolls.com and the recent merge of our group with the LaSalle PRIDE a group from Niagara Falls. I discussed the following with Jeff Williams from the Thruway Authority and he agrees, he also is the first one to admit that not all the money collected at these toll booths stays here like the Thruway Authority and others have said it does, last year alone they ran off with more that $10.6 Million to fund the rest of the thruway and the thruway debt.

We are the point where it is past time to start to make the Thruway Authority smaller instead of expanding as they have been for years. Take the Niagara section of the 190 from the city line, over the Grand Island bridges and into Niagara Falls away from the Thruway Authority and turn it over to the NY State D.O.T. Eliminating the tolls at the bridges.

The D.O.T. gets it funding from already dedicated sources like the Federal Reimbursement and the Highway Use Tax (HUT). The Grand Island bridges have been tolled since 1935 and for 72 years we have been paying tolls to get on and off the island. Traffic has gotten worse over the years and is in excess of 71,000 vehicles at the South Bridges and 52,000 at the North Bridges.

Daily traffic back up has become the norm with traffic backed up over a mile and sitting at a dead stop on the I-290 creating a very dangerous traffic safety hazard. The quickest and easiest remedy is to eliminate the tolls and by giving this section to the D.O.T. all will be done in one piece of legislation.

The Thruway Authority took over the bridges in 1950 and were the first tolls on the Thruway System. Not until June 24, 1954 were there any other tolls on it. At that point a 115 mile section was opened between Rochestor and Lowell, west of Utica.

I first discussed this with Senator George Maziarz, he liked the idea and he said he would research it and follow up on the proposal with his collegues and get back to me.

Governor Spitzers popularity is at an all time low and is over 70% negative here in WNY. You and he could show your commitment to helping WNY by doing this one very importand step to help better the economy and stop the commuter tax on people struggling to make a living here.

Jeff Williams from the thruway authority agrees, he feels that the Grand Island Bridges and the Niagara section should be run by the D.O.T. right now, so let’s make it happen. The other option I hear is building new toll booths on the other side of the bridges on Grand Island? That alone would cost 90 Million, and cannot be a serious proposal. Remove them for us all.