Time to end parkway toll/tax long overdue

In Gov. James McGreevey’s state of the state message, he mentioned one of his accomplishments was improving the E-ZPass mess. Left unsaid was the fact that parkway toll collecting has left a trail of $476 million in old E-ZPass debt, and $576 million in old parkway debt. To this will be added more than $450 million for the new E-ZPass, plus interest, for a total debt of more than $1.5 billion. (This debt has been cleverly merged with turnpike debt as part of the parkway-turnpike merger.)

Tolls are a tax, so toll collecting should be called tax collecting. And, tolls are the most expensive way to collect a tax. The parkway requires more than 700 people for tax collecting — 400 collectors, 80 supervisors and 222 of the 371 E-ZPass employees at the Newark headquarters. Parkway ramp tolls were recently added in Berkeley and Lakewood. A study found it cost 30 cents to collect each 25-cent toll at these locations. Maybe the difference is made up in volume.

The time to end parkway toll (tax) collecting is long overdue. Let’s start now before even more debt is incurred.

Raymond G. Neveil

President, Citizens Against Tolls

Manasquan