Fort Lee Toll Hike Hearing Draws Commuter Opposition, Union Support

Dozens packed the basement-level garage area of the George Washington Bridge Administration Building in Fort Lee for one of nine public hearings Tuesday on the Port Authority’s unprecedented toll and fare increase plan for Hudson River crossings, including the GWB.

The crowd comprised local and county residents and public officials who expressed opposition, concern and, in some cases, outrage about the Port Authority’s plan to raise tolls. But the meeting was also heavily attended by labor union members—many of whom wore orange t-shirts with the words “Port Authority = Jobs” printed on the back. The union members largely support the toll hikes, which they believe will ultimately create jobs.

Port Authority officials, citing decreased revenue resulting from an “historic economic recession;” billions of dollars in World Trade Center rebuilding and post-9/11 security costs; and the need for the biggest infrastructure overhaul in Port Authority history, say the agency needs the money to pay its bills. But those opposed to the plan to raise tolls so dramatically say it places an unfair burden on commuters and want the agency to reconsider.

Port Authority officials made it clear from the outset that the hearing Tuesday was not a question and answer session, but rather an opportunity for members of the public to have their say before the Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners considers a final plan at a meeting on Friday.

The first person to speak was Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, who expressed his “opposition to the current status of the proposal.”

“Fort Lee is a community consisting of approximately 40,000 people, thousands of whom commute daily to New York,” Sokolich said. “Suffice it to say, we are among your best customers. I can personally attest to the importance of investment in public infrastructure for a multitude of reasons—not the least of which is to avoid exorbitant expenditure in the future and to provide the highest quality of service to all citizens—and yes, to provide jobs. However, the timing of this initiative could not be worse. There must be a happy medium.”

Sokolich added that the proposed increases are “simply way too much to be absorbed by our commuters” and asked the Port Authority to “reconsider and not take such a drastic step.”

State Sen. Bob Gordon (D-38), who represents Fort Lee and 12 other Bergen County communities, also acknowledged the need to create jobs, improve infrastructure and protect the agency’s credit rating. But he noted that Bergen County residents account for more than 20 percent of the weekday traffic on Hudson River crossings. The proposed toll increases, he said, “will have a profound impact on the households that I represent.”

Gordon went on to question “whether we should be asking commuters to pick up the entire tab, especially in such an immediate fashion.”

Under the Port Authority’s proposed plan, tolls for passenger vehicles crossing into New York via the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel and other Hudson River crossings would increase as follows:

• E-ZPass (off-peak) – from $6 to $10 in 2011 and to $12 in 2014
• E-ZPass (peak) – from $8 to $12 in 2011 and to $14 in 2014
• Cash tolls (all times) – from $8 to $15 in 2011 and to $17 in 2014

The plan also calls for significant increases—as much as $1 per trip—in PATH fares this year.

Doug Sugarman, a 38-year resident of Fort Lee and the chairman of the Fort Lee Zoning Board of Adjustment, called the plan “totally unconscionable.”

“I have been traveling the George Washington Bridge since before the Cross Bronx Expressway was built; before Route 80 was built; before the lower level was built, and I have to tell you that while some increase in revenue might be necessary, what’s proposed, this is not the time,” Sugarman said.

Another longtime resident of Fort Lee, Nina Levinson, said that she joined the United Homeowners of Fort Lee “as well as many seniors” in “totally” opposing the plan.

“At my expense, with my toll money, the twin towers were built, [and] I resented it then that my toll money would be used for a commercial structure,” Levinson said. “Now the motorist is being raped again. The money goes not for the repair of the bridge. The money doesn’t go for the repair of the roadways—a little bit maybe. But it goes again where the twin towers were to build another building. And it goes for all kinds of other things that the Port Authority likes to do. It doesn’t go back to the motorist.”

Fort Lee resident Thomas Bennett took a different approach, beginning by listing salary figures he’d researched for high-ranking Port Authority officials, police officers and other highly paid employees of the agency.

“Instead of raising the tolls again and again and again,” Bennett said, “why don’t we just stop giving these exorbitant amounts of money to people who basically work in an office?”

Stephanie Fisher of Cliffside Park, noting the large contingent of union members in attendance, said that while many of them would benefit from the proposed plan, “I’m here today to represent a union whose members will not benefit—the teacher’s union.”

“I’m a proud Bergen County resident and New York City public school teacher whose civil servant’s salary has not moved in years because the city just doesn’t have the money,” Fisher said. “Just how the government has told us no, and we have had to accept that and become creative with our personal budgets, so should the Port Authority be forced in this tough economy to become creative with their budget. And we the public say no.”

John Driscoll, Chairman of the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders, voiced his opposition as well, but also expressed his “dismay” that “not one” Port Authority commissioner was in attendance.

“It saddens me that they’re not here,” Driscoll said. “I would be more than happy to open up 1 Bergen Plaza and the Board of Chosen Freeholders’ chambers for hearings to be held because something of this magnitude, I think, deserves a little bit better than a garage. Really, this is disgraceful.”

Port Authority officials have estimated the proposed increases would result in about $720 million in additional annual revenue this year and about $290 million in 2014, and said the plan would “fully fund” the agency’s $33 billion, 10-year capital plan and generate 167,000 jobs.

Among the litany of projects Port Authority officials say are contingent upon approval of its proposed toll and fare increase plan is the replacement of all 592 suspender ropes at the 80-year-old George Washington Bridge at a cost of $1 billion.

Steven Gardner of the New Jersey State Laborers’ Political Action Committee and a handful of labor union members who got up to speak referred to infrastructure needs, safety, security and concern over the Port Authority’s credit rating were it be forced to borrow money to fund its various projects. But they mostly focused on those 167,000 jobs.

“Someone said that now is not the right time, that in the recession, it’s not the time to raise tolls and impose costs on users; and yet, now is exactly the right time,” Gardner said. “Now is the time—when we have 40 percent unemployment in the building trades—that we figure out a way to use public sector money to put people back to work and get them working to revitalize our economy.”

Labor union member Phillip Arena of Bloomingdale said that “for reasons of safety, security, quality of life and work creation, I support the Port Authority’s capital plan.”

Marcel Idrovo described himself only as a “proud member of the labor union.”

“I’m 22 years on the labor union, and I’ve never seen so many brothers and sisters out of work,” Idrovo said. “We’re talking about how these toll increases are going to affect the pockets of the working families, but we aren’t talking about all these thousands of people out of work for so many months; so many years.”

That was a sentiment shared by another 22-year union member from Essex County who said he’s worked about half of those years on Port Authority jobs at Newark Airport.

“I need this money, these jobs, this capital budget,” he said. “However they get it done, I need this.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both of whom could veto the plan, issued a joint statement almost immediately after the Port Authority announced it on Aug. 5, expressing “obvious and significant concerns."

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) sent a statement that was read at the hearing in Jersey City Tuesday morning, expressing his concern about how a 50 percent toll increase and a $1 fare increase would hurt working families and businesses. Menendez also called on Christie to veto the proposal and “have the Port Authority come back with more reasonable options.”

“To put these increases in perspective, the [George Washington] Bridge is less than a mile long, and yet one would have to pay $15 cash to cross it,” Menendez said in the statement. “If the Turnpike had the same toll per mile, it would cost over $2,000 to travel through New Jersey. This is simply an unacceptable increase.”

Bergen County Republicans also weighed in Monday, when County Clerk Elizabeth Randall, who is seeking re-election in November, freeholder candidates Joel Brizzi  and Anthony Rottino and surrogate candidate Andrew Cimiluca issued their own joint statement condemning the plan.

The Republicans said the proposed toll hikes “need to be scaled back,” and that the Port Authority should conduct more public meetings in the county “in places that are easily accessible to residents.”