The New York State Thruway Authority is facing some significant financial hurdles, and a series of steps are being proposed to stabilize the books.
The Authority has seen maintenance costs rise while ridership is down, which is causing debt issues. A scaling back of construction projects along with budget cuts have been proposed. Most controversial is a possible 45 percent increase in tolls for commercial traffic. Some truckers claim this could raise their annual costs by more than $3 thousand per truck. Those costs would likely be passed on to consumers, but according to the Authority, those rates are still lower than neighboring states.
The Authority also plans to cut its budget by $100 million over two years.
