The only way to get them under control is to eliminate them altogether. It is in the hands of our legislators in Albany. Bills in the Assembly by Schroeder and the Senate by Maziarz.

Taking its toll

So much for cutting costs, as Governor Paterson has been urging everyone in state government. So much for accountability, too, and all those voices of opposition to a toll increase along the state Thruway. The Thruway Authority was determined to raise tolls anyway, and on Friday it voted to do just that.

Tolls will be going up 5 percent as of next January and 5 percent again the year after that. That will come, of course, on top of a round of toll increases enacted in 2005 and concluded just three months ago, with a 10 percent increase.

It amounts to a thinly disguised tax hike, notes state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, just as gas prices are climbing steadily, heading for $4 a gallon.

The Thruway Authority’s defense, such as it is, goes like this. The money that higher tolls would bring, about $375 million over the next four years, is essential to maintaining the infrastructure of a vast and aging highway system.

The last round of toll increases was supposed to pay for $2.6 billion in repairs. Suddenly, though, not all that money was there. That’s because of increasing construction costs, which is understandable enough, but also because drivers have had the temerity to drive on the Thruway a bit less.

So what will the authority do if the one-two combination of sky-high gas prices and higher tolls mean less traffic on the Thruway?

The highway that extends 641 miles from outside New York City, beyond Buffalo to the Pennsylvania border could become something of a vicious cycle.

One way to stop that would be to adopt a more realistic fiscal structure for the Thruway Authority. Why, for instance, does it have to operate the state canal system, at a cost of about $80 million a year? Or some downstate roads and bridges, including Interstate 287, Interstate 84 and the Tappan Zee Bridge?

Putting the canal system back into the overall state budget would allow the Thruway Authority to operate more efficiently as it made the Erie Canal and the rest of the state canal system the responsibility of all taxpayers. That was the arrangement, in fact, up until 1992, when state officials transferred responsibility for the canal system from the Department of Transportation to the Thruway Authority in their own act of fiscal gimmickry. Mr. Paterson should again make the canal system part of a state agency rather than an authority.

Finally, a Thruway toll increase that comes at the defiance of seemingly everyone’s wishes will mean even more scrutiny of the authority itself. Thruway officials note that they plan to eliminate 50 jobs by the end of 2012. They might find that political reality dictates that they cut costs even further, just like others in state government are being asked to do.

THE ISSUE: The Thruway Authority imposes a wildly unpopular toll increase.

THE STAKES: Motorists are left paying for the highway, but the canal system as well.