Staten Islanders Furious As MTA Considers A $15 Toll To Cross Verrazano Bridge
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- One woman told 1010 WINS' Steve Sandberg that she doesn't even have to leave Staten Island to feel the burden of high tolls.
"It's actually cheaper for tolls in Brooklyn than for tolls in Staten Island," she said Saturday.
Now, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants to hike the Verrazano Bridge toll to $15, and Staten Islanders are banding together to say "enough is enough" with all these tolls.
1010 WINS' Steve Sandberg reports
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"It's totally ludicrous," one man said. "It keeps on going up. There's no (stopping it). When is it going to end?"
"No matter which way we go we have to put our hand in our pocket to leave the island, and I think it's unfair," another man added. "And it's a burden on us."
But the toll hike won't happen if Congressman Michael Grimm gets his way. He hopes to put up a roadblock -- a federal law to cap toll hikes at 10 percent over five years, or lose millions.
"If this is enacted by 2013, they will have to roll their toll back to $12.10 for five years for them to be eligible for that federal funding," Grimm said. "In 2008, the Verrazano Bridge (toll) was $10. So in 2013, that bridge could not be raised more than $1 -- 10 percent of the $10 -- to $11. In 2013, the next five-year period, they can raise it another 10 percent."
Grimm's bill would force a toll cut.
Do you think this is ridiculous or just the price of doing business in a tight economy? Please offer your thoughts in the comments section below ...
