BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The cash-strapped Thruway Authority has a long history of budget problems. In the past, it has received billion dollar bailouts from the state. And now, we know exactly how much money it is losing out on because of uncollected tolls.
Nearly $11 million in tolls went unpaid on the New York State Thruway from 2010 to 2014. From 2013 to 2014, uncollected tolls jumped from $2 million to almost $2.5 million.
Those are the most recent numbers the Thruway Authority would provide our partners at Gannett Albany with after journalists there filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year.
From 2010 to 2014, the Thruway Authority lost out on more than $756,000 in unpaid tolls at the Williamsville Toll Barrier.
Two other tolls plazas lost out on even more revenue: the Tappan Zee Bridge downstate lost nearly $1.7 million during that same time frame and Exit 15 in Woodbury lost $1.5 million.
A spokesperson for the Thruway Authority was quick to point out over the phone Friday that the rate of toll violators decreased. She would not do a recorded interview, but issued a statement saying: "The Thruway Authority will continue to work with our state partners to pursue additional enforcement options to ensure everyone pays their fair share."
2 On Your Side asked Donna Luh, the Vice Chair of the Thruway Authority Board, about those additional enforcement options.
"Any specifics on the measures that you might be taking that you're willing to talk about?" asked 2 On Your Side’s Kelly Dudzik.
“Not, you know, not right now because I think they're just in discussion stage,” said Luh.
Assemblyman Ray Walter thinks the Thruway Authority is antiquated, and he supports legislation to get rid of it and roll it into the Department of Transportation.
"The entire Thruway system operates still under a 1950s operation. We need to make sure that we're in the 21st century. A Thruway that has a cashless system, that's high-speed, that's more like some of the systems we see in other states," says Walter.
Walter also says high speed tolls and a cashless system would not only cut down on toll revenue losses, it would cut payroll costs significantly.
“Through attrition we can get to a point where we won't have to have toll collectors anymore and the legacy costs that go along with that, health care costs, those are significant savings down the road that you'll be able to count on without having many people working in toll booths. You also benefit from the environmental impacts of not having the traffic backed up and time that people waste in their cars while they're backed up in traffic because you don't have a cashless system," says Walter.
This January, a new regulation went into effect that allows the DMV to suspend the registration of drivers who repeatedly don't pay their tolls. Walter says there should be more things like this on the books. Since we don't have any numbers on toll violators for this year yet, we don't know if that new regulation has been a deterrent.