SR149

A Senate Resolution urging the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to provide discounts on toll rates for New Jersey residents who have accounts with the electronic toll collection system.

Whereas, In 1987, several toll agencies from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania began to explore the potential for regional application of emerging electronic toll collection technology, now commonly known as E-ZPass, which would allow a motorist to pay tolls automatically as a car passes through an appropriate toll lane, without using cash or presenting a toll ticket; and

Whereas, In 1990, the toll agencies joined to form a consortium known as the E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG), which included representatives from the New Jersey Highway Authority, the former operator of the Garden State Parkway, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, the New York State Thruway Authority, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the South Jersey Transportation Authority, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA); and

Whereas, These seven agencies represented almost 40 percent of all U.S. toll transactions and nearly 70 percent of all U.S. toll revenue; and

Whereas, Today the E-ZPass system is the largest interoperable toll collection system in the country, consisting of toll agencies in 16 states, servicing more than 18 million accounts and more than 30 million E-ZPass tags, and being responsible for the collection of over $8 billion dollars in electronic toll revenues annually; and

Whereas, The IAG’s goal was to implement a regionally compatible electronic toll collection system that would not only satisfy the divergent toll collection and traffic management needs of the participating agencies but would also provide regional mobility and convenience to its customers; and

Whereas, The toll agencies created the E-Zpass system with the promise of reducing traffic congestion and cutting pollution at discounted rates for E-Zpass account holders, yet part of that promise has been broken for millions of drivers with E-Zpass accounts who use the toll facilities operated by the MTA; and

Whereas, Although every toll facility operated by the MTA in New York advertises a cash toll rate and a discount for E-Zpass account holders, it is not advertised at the MTA toll facilities that the MTA only provides those discounts to customers with E-ZPass accounts maintained by New York agencies; and

Whereas, According to AAA Northeast, between 2012 and 2016, there were more than 92 million transactions in which E-ZPass accounts that were established outside of New York were charged the cash toll rate on MTA toll facilities, with 70 million of those transactions coming from New Jersey E-ZPass account holders; and

Whereas, Although the MTA is an authority of the State of New York with toll facilities entirely within the State of New York, tens of millions of E-ZPass transactions occur at the New York toll facilities, including transactions by New Jersey residents who use the toll facilities to get to work, school, family, and other important points of interest in New York; and

Whereas, With the interconnectedness of the citizens, workforce, and economy of the State of New York with the State of New Jersey, it is appropriate for MTA to provide E-ZPass discounts to residents of the State of New Jersey, now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of New Jersey:

1. This House urges the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to apply discounts on toll rates for customers with accounts with the electronic toll collection system, commonly known as E-ZPass, to residents of the State of New Jersey, who have E-Z Pass accounts.

2. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Secretary of the Senate to the Governor of the State of New Jersey, the Governor of the State of New York, and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

STATEMENT

This resolution urges the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to provide discounts on toll rates for New Jersey residents who have accounts with the electronic toll collection system, commonly known as E-ZPass.