Officials Push For Toll Cut After NJ Turnpike Panel OKs Automatic Hikes

OCEAN COUNTY, NJ — Ocean County legislators are sponsoring bills in the Senate and Assembly that would overturn an automatic toll hike instituted by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and cut current tolls by 50 cents.

State Sen. Jim Holzapfel and Assemblymen Greg McGuckin and John Catalano, who represent the 10th District, announced the measures days after the Turnpike Authority announced tolls would be increasing Jan 1, just over a year since the last increase in tolls on the state's roads.

"I think everybody who commutes on the Turnpike or Garden State Parkway was blindsided by the announcement that tolls would increase for the second time in a little over a year," Holzapfel said. "There was no discussion about it, no public hearings, no transparency."

"This is a tax on driving, and it is a disgrace that in a state with some of the highest taxes in the nation, the bureaucrats at the Turnpike Authority would stoop so low to sneak verbiage in a contract that provides for annual and automatic increases," Holzapfel said.

On Sept. 13, 2020, tolls were bumped 36 percent on the Turnpike, 27 percent on the Parkway and 37 percent on the Atlantic City Expressway. At the time, toll revenue had been significantly reduced because fewer people were driving as a result of the pandemic.

The increases set to take effect on the Jan. 1 are part of the $2.2 billion budget plan approved by Turnpike commissioners for 2022, according to this line in the budget: "Annual toll rate indexing at 3 percent effective January 1."

Automatic indexing will also trigger a 3 percent boost on the Atlantic City Expressway.

"The toll hike was a sneak attack on New Jersey drivers at a time when the state’s already high cost of living is soaring under near-record inflation levels," McGuckin said. "It is an insult to every driver, and an assault on the wallets of working families everywhere, especially those who live in coastal communities to commute to work every day on toll roads."

Holzapfel, a Republican. has signed on as a co-sponsor of Senate bill S-4276, which was introduced by Sen. Nia Gill, a Democrat from the 34th District, in Essex and Passaic counties.

McGuckin and Catalano, both Republicans, said they will introduce an identical measure in the Assembly.

Legislators will have to move quickly to pass the measure before the legislative session ends on Jan. 11, or they will have to start over after the Senate and Assembly members are sworn in for a new legislative session.

"The audacity of the commissioners who enacted a plan to pick-pocket drivers to make their jobs easier is astounding," McGuckin said. "New Jersey residents deserve more respect and consideration."

"Gas prices are through the roof and the inflation rate is 6.8 percent, a 40-year high," Catalano said. “Now is not the time to saddle commuters with even higher costs. There’s never a good time for an automatic tax increase, and make no mistake – this is a tax increase. But a toll hike that is triggered by the calendar ignores too many other critical factors."