Theresa Juva-Brown

tjuva@lohud.com

Legislation to crack down on toll evaders failed to make it into the final state budget, but leaders haven't given up on it.

Sen. David Carlucci, D-New City, this week introduced a new bill to let toll agencies partner with the state Department of Motor Vehicles and other states to suspend vehicle registrations of persistent violators. Currently, only a local court or administrative tribunal can suspend them.

Carlucci's bill also calls for vehicle registrations to be suspended after motorists fail to respond to five toll-due notices.

"This is going after chronic evaders. It's not someone who misses one toll," he told The Journal News.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's initial proposal also would have given toll agencies power to partner with the DMV and other states.

His proposal called for vehicle registrations to be suspended after three unanswered notices; violators also would have faced the potential of being charged with "theft of services," a misdemeanor.

Toll authority leaders have said that as cash toll lanes are phased out for all-electronic systems, agencies need more power to ensure that everyone pays. Currently, toll agencies can pursue outstanding tolls only through debt collection companies.

Maintaining toll revenue will be especially important on the Tappan Zee Bridge, which is expected to switch to completely cashless tolling next year to ease traffic during new bridge construction.

The $3.9 billion project to replace the Tappan Zee will be covered largely with revenue from future tolls.

In an all-electronic system, motorists without E-ZPass drive straight through toll areas, where cameras take photos of their license plates. The license plates on vehicles without transponders are matched with registration records. The toll agency then sends a bill in the mail to the address on the vehicle registration.

Receiving payments is proving to be a big challenge.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for example, is still trying to collect $1.6 million in unpaid tolls on the Henry Hudson Bridge from November 2012 through September 2013.

The MTA has been testing all-electronic tolling on that bridge since Nov. 2012.