By Ted Mann
Associated Press
In this 2010 photo, then New York Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo, right, conducts an inspection tour of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Just days after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s staff defended raising tolls on the Tappan Zee Bridge to as much as $14 to pay for the bridge’s replacement, the governor himself called the rate “too high.”
In a letter sent Friday to the New York Thruway Authority, which owns the Tappan Zee and would build its replacement, Cuomo called for a task force of federal, state and local officials to find ways to reduce the roughly $5 billion project’s impact on drivers.
In seeking ways to defray the project’s cost while holding down toll increases, Cuomo suggested some avenues the state is already exploring — like pressing for “maximum federal support” of the project, in the form of grants and financing — and some that would be new, like expanding the existing toll discount for commuters who live in Rockland and Westchester Counties.
He sounded a different tone than his top deputies — including Secretary to the Governor Lawrence Schwartz, Director of State Operations Howard Glaser and Thruway Executive Director Thomas Madison — did just days ago.
Those officials helped mount a public relations blitz to explain and defend the proposed toll increase, including public meetings with local officials last weekend and conference calls with reporters. The officials noted that discounts for commuters and E-ZPass users would mean that an effective $14 cash toll would not hit all drivers.
The officials also argued that the cost of maintaining the existing span would drive tolls up from their current $5 level to nearly the amount needed to pay for a new bridge.
“Are you willing to spend an additional 60 cents in each direction for a new Tappan Zee Bridge?” Glaser asked rhetorically, in a conference call with reporters on Aug. 2. “That is the decision that is in front of the state and that Westchester and Rockland residents need to consider.”
Those comments came as some residents of Rockland and Westchester expressed concern about the rise in tolls.
On Friday, Mr. Cuomo took a different approach, praising the overall work of the state officials who have planned the bridge project, but insisting that less of the cost come directly from the drivers who will use it.
For many in Rockland and Westchester, the governor wrote, “the bridge is the only practical crossing for commuting, shopping and visiting family. I believe the projected 2017 toll schedule based on the Federal Highway Administration’s estimate of up to $5.2 billion for the new bridge is too high. Over the next five years, we must find alternatives, revenue generators and cost reductions that reduce the potential toll increases.”
