[MrGompers]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Automated tolls require zero employees.

I'd kind of like full disclosure. You sound like you're a state/local worker with one of those pensions none of the rest of us get. It's fine to shift the burden onto the rest of us so you can have a cushy retirement funded by somebody else?

I don't work for any state or local Govt's and never have in the past either.

Tolls will require employees for admin and maintenance at the very minimum. While I can imagine admin duties being subcontracted out, the maintenance will never be subcontracted out. We already have a state DOT to take care of that.

Regardless of the number of new employees needed anyone here who thinks the state will net more than 20% on these new tolls is sadly mistaken. We'd be lucky if the revenue generated covered current expenses and future expansion/maintenance.

Tolls are just a different and more inefficient way to collect taxes/revenue. The biggest advantages a gas tax has is that its extremely simple to calculate, administer, and collect.

IMO I would just raise the gas tax and stop crying about all of the "free loading out of staters" - which is what this toll idea is really about.

We can forget about any of the towns / cities dropping the car tax too. That's never going to happen and if some variation of it did happen the towns / cities would just raise the mill rates to offset the loss.

In some cases dropping the car tax would actually be a tax cut to the wealthy and a tax increase to the poor.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by MrGompers

In some cases dropping the car tax would actually be a tax cut to the wealthy and a tax increase to the poor.

How so?

[retiree2011]

Originally Posted by MikefromCT

One more reason why Jersey has the second-highest outward migration in the country. CT is the 4th, in case you're wondering, and I'm sure people will be bolstering about how this state can do no wrong because there are still 3 other states above us in that category.

Malloy tried for the #1 spot, can't say he didn't

[BeyondtheHorizon]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

How so?

Because wealthy people have more expensive cars. Right now a person with a bentley pays more in yearly car tax than someone with a honda civic.

[Henry10]

Originally Posted by BeyondtheHorizon

Because wealthy people have more expensive cars. Right now a person with a bentley pays more in yearly car tax than someone with a honda civic.

The other half of the sentence -- continuing the class warfare BS -- a $ 50/month toll would be proportionally heavier to somebody making $ 30k/year versus somebody making $ 3 million/yr.

[SparkyR59]

Originally Posted by Henry10

The other half of the sentence -- continuing the class warfare BS -- a $ 50/month toll would be proportionally heavier to somebody making $ 30k/year versus somebody making $ 3 million/yr.

And that's exactly what out of touch people can't grasp that concept about tolls it's going to crush us with on top of all the other tax burden we have already. just wate and see what's going to happen to waterbury torrington Bridgeport thomastion and so forth where are income is at 30k to 60k

[CTartist]

Originally Posted by SparkyR59

And that's exactly what out of touch people can't grasp that concept about tolls it's going to crush us with on top of all the other tax burden we have already. just wate and see what's going to happen to waterbury torrington Bridgeport thomastion and so forth where are income is at 30k to 60k

I was just thinking about this. All the money you will get back from Trump's tax cuts will be going to the new tolls.

And the people in FFC in the higher tax brackets will be getting hit twice all at once. Once with the new tolls and then with the fact that most people in FFC will not be able to take state taxes over $10,000 from their federal returns.

[ads94]

Money back from the tax cuts... lol what a great joke

I barely noticed anything. Anything little thing I would notice would be gone in the $40 a month I'll pay. Unlike most, I still support tolls, priced right. So far I think the pricing is okay, reducing it another cent/mile and I would be fine with it.

The fiscal calamity we are at now is because of decades of voting for Ds and Rs who didn't care and thought the gravy train would come forever. Those days are gone, so we need to do something.

[synchem]

Originally Posted by SparkyR59

And that's exactly what out of touch people can't grasp that concept about tolls it's going to crush us with on top of all the other tax burden we have already. just wate and see what's going to happen to waterbury torrington Bridgeport thomastion and so forth where are income is at 30k to 60k

Which is why it only makes sense to eliminate the gas tax with the implementation of tolls.

If this is really to have out of stater's pay their share of road usage, tolls will be much more effective in doing that than a gas tax. Pretty much every car on the road is capable of filling up a gas tank and driving through the entire state without stopping. Effectively not paying for their share of road use, to avoid paying tolls while traveling they would have to avoid our state entirely. This would then fund the repairing of roads with a correlation to tolls which is how much money is made from their use.

[Stepfordct]

Polls will hurt the Post rd traffic which is already bad. As people will not want to go for a few exits if they can bypass a toll.
As a previous poster mentioned if kept to a nominal amount it might be a non issue.
Again the real issue is spending.