Citizens Against Tolls has learned that Gov. James E. McGreevey will soon present his plan to combine the New Jersey Highway Authority and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.
Unless there is a significant cut in costs throughout the bureaucratic structure of these authorities, we do not see many reasons to proceed with this process.
Combining the authorities has a number of setbacks:
• The governor’s actions will lead to a larger and stronger bureaucratic/patronage body. This body will continue to incur huge amounts of debt at the expense of New Jersey’s residents. Most importantly, is combining the parkway and turnpike a step to prevent the citizens from one day removing only parkway toll barriers?
• If no patronage jobs are eliminated, how many savings are there and what changes actually occur? This is not clear to us.
The safest, most economical and beneficial way to assist the residents of New Jersey would be to completely remove tolls from the Garden State Parkway.
Remember, the Garden State Parkway is just a road — please help stop the insanity.
John Millett
Citizens Against Tolls
Millstone Township