Rockland County Executive Ed Day believes tripling the toll for the new Tappan Zee Bridge would cripple local commerce by discouraging potential shoppers from crossing the Hudson River.
The current toll is southbound only, for $5 in cash or $4.75 for E-ZPass enrollees. A toll hike is expected in order to cover the cost of the $3.9 billion, double-span bridge replacement, but how high the price can go at this moment is only a guess. The best indicator may be the comments of Larry Schwartz, a top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who speculated the price of the new toll could climb to as much as $14, in line with the George Washington Bridge.
“A toll of that magnitude is unacceptable,” Day said on April 25, during an elected officials panel at the Suffern Crowne Plaza hosted by Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, a Newburgh-based business and academic advocacy group.
Day, a Republican who came into office in January, said that 25 percent of the entire sales tax generated in Rockland comes from the Palisades Center. Would-be shoppers might decide not to cross the bridge and instead visit Ridge Hill in Yonkers or other similar shopping destinations, he said.
The county executive called it a “fairy tale” that the Tappan Zee crossing would be compared to New York City connectors that are run by agencies like the Port Authority, which have real estate holdings and other interests that dictate costs.
“It should be commensurate of a crossing into Westchester, not New York City,” he said of the price of the new toll. He noted that in the comparisons, there has been little comparison to the only other bridge linking Rockland and Westchester: The Bear Mountain Bridge.
“Gee, you know why? It”™s only a buck fifty,” he said.
The cost of the toll continues to be a talking point in large part due to a lack of a defined funding structure for the new bridge. A $1.6 billion federal loan is all that has been accounted for so far, leading many to the conclusion that a large portion of the construction will have to be funded through toll revenue.
The State Thruway Authority has reportedly begun issuing bonds to pay its bills and although the federal loan interest rate is guaranteed under 4 percent, critics are concerned about the uncertainty of the bonds”™ rates, which could inflate the cost of construction beyond the $3.9 billion price tag.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican who is running for governor against Cuomo this year, said he wasn”™t sure how the bridge would be paid for. “Obviously it”™s being built and the bills are coming in,” he said.
A financing and toll commission that would look to determine what the toll will be has yet to have been appointed by the governor, but Astorino and others are already calling for a resident discount for the toll. The state recently launched a discount for Staten Island residents enrolled in E-ZPass that use the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which has a cash toll of $15 and an E-ZPass rate of $10.67.
Other options include the State Thruway Authority spreading out whatever costs it needs to recuperate through the entire system rather than the one bridge.
For Al Samuels, president of the Rockland County Business Association, it is too early in the process to worry about the cost of the toll. He said a focus should be finding financing mechanisms to complete the bridge. There may even be funding opportunities through the Department of Homeland Security, he said, and creative opportunities like offering naming rights of the bridge to a sponsor.
“The Tappan Zee Bridge, my God the Tappan Zee Bridge is in the news every day,” Samuels said. “There”™s an awful lot of attention on it. Why not the possibility of calling it whatever if someone says ”˜I want a piece of that?”™”
Samuels said he didn”™t think that an increased toll would stop shoppers from visiting the Palisades mall, the new Shops at Nanuet and Woodbury Common in Orange County. There are plans to create an enhanced public transportation component along with the new bridge to offer bus lines that will travel back and forth over into Rockland and beyond. That could bring even more shoppers across the bridge, Samuels said, and offer an alternative travel method for those who have a car but may not want to drive.
There will be an increase of some kind, he said, and there would likely have to be even if a new bridge weren”™t built. “I just don”™t see the sky falling from this bridge,” he said of the impact on local business. “The most important thing is we will finally have a truly safe crossing between Rockland and Westchester counties and I think that”™s worth an extra couple of bucks.”
The current Tappan Zee Bridge was built in 1955 and talks of replacing it date back several decades before a plan was put together and approved under Cuomo. The new bridge is expected to open by 2018.
