The New York State Thruway Authority recently announced there will be no toll increases to any part of the state system in 2015-16, but questions about the future of the Tappan Zee Bridge toll continue to be raised by residents and state officials.
With the project design about 96 percent finished and construction approaching 40 percent completion, people continue to wonder whether the construction of the $3.9 billion replacement bridge is going to raise the current one-way cash fare of $5 and the E-ZPass cost of $4.75.
Brian Conybeare, special bridge adviser to the governor, moderated a presentation and question-and-answer session at an annual public meeting held in Tarrytown earlier this month to discuss updates and concerns about the new bridge.
In addition to pressing Conybeare about the toll, one meeting attendee went so far as to ask why the Thruway Authority is releasing heavily redacted reports about the agency”™s financial plan for the bridge.
But those questions were met with a familiar answer, which on this night was given by Robert Megna, the executive director of the Thruway Authority. Megna reiterated the agency”™s unwavering response: “We have to exercise all financial options before we would talk about what tolls would be.”
The Journal News received documents in November after an eight-month process of trying to acquire financial records from the Thruway Authority via a federal Freedom of Information Act request. The documents received were largely redacted, according to reports published by the newspaper.
At the meeting, Megna later added, “I don”™t think it”™s really an issue of hiding anything; it”™s an issue of maximizing the resources and we can get the best possible result. We”™re not quite there yet.”
But residents at public meetings aren”™t the only ones dissatisfied.
“They”™ve been saying that all along,” said state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. In order to have a transparent process, DiNapoli said the Thruway Authority should “give some general range of what the impact might be. I think (that) would give people the kind of information I think that they”™re entitled to.”
In a January 2013 letter to the Thruway Authority”™s then-Executive Director Thomas J. Madison, DiNapoli made clear that transparency and accountability on the project are “imperative.” DiNapoli said in the letter he expected a “financing plan would be finalized and made available” once the federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan was secured.
That loan, for $1.6 billion, was granted in 2013. Earlier this month, the state Department of Environmental Conservation also came to an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to receive a $31.3 million loan for the bridge project. The state also allocated about $750 million in settlement funds toward the construction.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo directed the Thruway Authority in 2012 to assemble a task force charged with finding alternative funding and cost-reduction options to keep the bridge”™s toll from being increased. The governor”™s office has said in previous statements that the task force would be assembled after “final financing on the project has been established.”
