Cuomo: State to send $1.3B to Thruway to keep tolls down

ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday said the state will send $1.3 billion to the Thruway Authority to prevent highway toll increases and limit them on the Tappan Zee Bridge.

In a speech to a New York City-based business group, Cuomo said the state will "invest" in the Thruway Authority, which passed a budget last month that included a $25 million revenue shortfall and no plan to make up for it.

Cuomo said the state funds -- which would need to be approved by the Legislature -- will allow the authority to avoid hiking highway tolls on the 570-mile system. He also said the state cash will also blunt a toll increase on the $3.9 billion replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge, the Thruway-owned span between Westchester and Rockland counties.

The funding would come from $5 billion the state has received from financial settlements with banks and insurers. The state has not yet revealed what the toll on the new Tappan Zee will be, or if tolls will increase on the current span. Cuomo will lay out his State of the State address and budget proposal on Wednesday.

"We're going to continue upgrading our infrastructure statewide," Cuomo said at the Association for a Better New York's breakfast meeting in Manhattan. "We're going to invest in the Thruway to keep the tolls constant on the Thruway so there won't be a toll increase because we want that traffic and we want that traffic to continue. And we'll also be investing in the construction of the Tappan Zee Bridge to keep that toll down when the new bridge is constructed."

It's unclear how much of the $1.3 billion would be used to pay off the new bridge and how much would be used for the Thruway's day-to-day operations. Nonetheless, it's the first time the state has offered specifics about how much of the bank settlement money would go to the Thruway, as some lawmakers and officials had called for.

The announcement was part of Cuomo's infrastructure plan for downstate New York, which he said will include improvements to mass transit in New York City and its suburbs.

In the suburbs, Cuomo's office said the state will spend $150 million to help the Metropolitan Transportation Authority build parking garages along commuter rail lines, with one garage slated for the Lighthouse Landing, a former General Motors site in Sleepy Hollow, Westchester County. He also re-iterated support for connecting Metro-North trains in Westchester to Penn Station in Manhattan while building four new stations in the Bronx.

Cuomo said the state is planning on building a rail connection from LaGuardia Airport in Queens to the Willets Point transit station, which will allow for connections to the Long Island Rail Road and the city's subway system.

Cuomo again threw his backing behind a plan to expand cargo capacity at Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, Orange County. He wants to make the area a Start-Up NY zone, a state program that allows businesses to avoid paying state taxes for 10 years if they locate there. By doing that, Stewart would "basically be a free-trade zone" for those transporting goods.

"So for cargo companies that want to locate at Stewart Airport, bring goods in, bring goods out, there will be no New York state taxation," Cuomo said.

Cuomo said the goal of sending money to the Thruway Authority is to limit tolls on the new bridge, which currently has a $5 toll heading east. The new bridge is set to open in 2018.

JCAMPBELL1@gannett.com

Twitter.com/JonCampbellGAN

Includes reporting by Albany Bureau Chief Joseph Spector.