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Domenick DiCicco
Today it will cost you more to cross the Delaware on one of the Delaware River Port Authority's bridges. A dollar more to be exact. Fares went up to $5. And Assemblyman Domenick DiCicco says it may not stop there. An automatic hike could kick in in 18 months. “What’s worse is that these toll hikes authorized in 2008 will never end. Tolls can now increase every other year without a vote by the board or opportunity for commuters to object. This taxation without representation is a blank check for toll increases." Jeff Nash is vice chairman of the DRPA and a water carrier for South Jersey Democratic Boss George Norcross, without whom Nash would not have a politcal career. Here is what Nash himself said in 2006. "You can’t raise tolls when gas prices are over $3 a gallon." DiCicco noted, "But since then tolls have increased by 66 percent and we wish gas was down to $3 per gallon.” DiCicco said it's about being a patronage pit. “These higher tolls, roughly $500 a year for daily commuters, might be tolerable if they were needed for vital transportation projects, but these increases are nothing but a patronage tax assessed on working families to pay for politicians’ pet projects and jobs for their cronies.” And tolls aren't the only thing that will costs more, DiCicco said. “Not only will getting to work become more expensive, but we’ll pay more for groceries, clothes and every single product that is trucked across the Delaware River.” How ironic as we get ready to celebrate an independence won in a war partially over taxation without representation that these independent agencies can continue to raise what amounts to a tax on transportation. The DRPA is a bi-state agency with board members representing New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
