Griffo: A Thruway Toll Hike Now Would’ve Harmed Upstate Economy
Senator Joseph A. Griffo (R-C-IP, Rome) today said he is satisfied that the new budget changes have averted the need for a toll hike for trucks and other commercial traffic along the New York State Thruway and urged the New York State Thruway Authority to continue searching for cost-saving measures.
“Increasing the cost of transporting goods within New York State right now, would have sent the wrong message to the business people we have been hoping would increase their investments in our Upstate communities. We cannot succeed in our work to revive the economy of our Upstate manufacturing and distribution centers at the same time that the Thruway is making the costs of doing business higher and higher,” Griffo said. “Central and Northern New York State communities are already facing too many barriers in their efforts to grow stronger economies. An increase would not have helped us in pursuit of that goal and in fact, worked against it.”
Griffo urged the Authority to continue keeping in mind the bigger picture. “In my mind, the issue before the Authority was not whether a toll hike would increase revenue, but whether New York’s economy could bear the cost of that increase. I believe that the answer is that is cannot, and I compliment the Thruway Authority for to looking at other measures and finding the imbalance between costs and existing revenue.”
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