San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond voices opposition against the California county’s plan to tax highway drivers for every mile with a new tolling system.
New Jersey is paying a hefty price for toll cheats, and it’s not alone.
The state faced $117 million in losses last year because of drivers who defied tolls, according to reports. It’s a problem that’s only getting worse.
Unpaid tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike alone totaled $47.2 million. Meanwhile, unpaid tolls on the Garden State Parkway reached $9 million, according to the Turnpike Authority.
Officials said that both those figures have increased over the past five years.
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Vehicles travel through a toll plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike as the sun sets in Newark, N.J., on May 11, 2021. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images / Getty Images)
On top of that, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey faced $36.58 million in losses last year due to unpaid tolls, according to reports.
Meanwhile, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission reported a loss of $20 million in toll violations. The Atlantic City Expressway reported $1.88 million in losses last year, too.
However, Lenis Valens, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the agency has made upgrades to combat this issue.
While the authority has “seen fluctuations in the uncollectible toll rate, overall it has remained stable because of technology enhancements, back office, and in-lane system upgrades with all-electronic tolling and increased field enforcement efforts,” Valens said in a statement to FOX Business.
During fiscal year 2022, uncollectible tolls amounted to 2% of total transactions, according to Valens.
Cars pass through a toll plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike in Jersey City, N.J., on Aug. 29, 2019. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Still, it’s a problem many states are facing.
In May, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said the state’s Thruway Authority has to do a better job of identifying, billing and collecting tolls and related fees.
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His comments came after a recent audit revealed there was $276.3 million in unpaid tolls and fees in collection status since March. Out-of-state drivers, particularly from Connecticut and New Jersey, accounted for a “significant amount” of the outstanding tolls and related fees, according to the audit.
In November, in Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, the governor at the time, signed legislation aimed at helping the Pennsylvania Turnpike recover more unpaid tolls.
E-Z Pass lanes are marked at a toll plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike in Newark, N.J., on Aug. 29, 2019. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Image / Getty Images)
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“The customer is given several notices and opportunities to pay the tolls they owe before their registration is suspended,” PennDOT spokeswoman Alexis Campbell said.
The legislation also reduces how much in collective unpaid tolls are needed to trigger registration suspension, from $500 to $250, and the number of unpaid tolls required to start the enforcement process goes down from six violations to four invoices.
The turnpike can also go back five years after the violation in suspending registrations, a change from three years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
