How Do You Feel About Increased Tolls On The GWB?

After the dust had settled last week, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved a scaled-back version of its plan to raise tolls on the George Washington Bridge and other Husdon River crossings, as well as PATH fares, an unprecedented amount.

The timeline of events leading up to Friday's decision:

• Aug. 5 - The Port Authority announced its proposal late in the day on a Friday, calling for E-ZPass increases from $6 to $10 during off-peak hours and from $8 to $12 during peak hours starting in September; cash toll increases from $8 to $15 and PATH fares to increase by as much as $1, all with additional, smaller increases over the next three years.
• Aug. 16 - Fort Lee played host to one of nine public hearings on the proposed toll and fare hikes that day, with residents, commuters and politicians from both sides of the political aisle expressing their opposition to the plan and union members supporting it for the most part.
• Aug. 18 - The Fort Lee Borough Council passed a resolution officially opposing the Port Authority’s proposal to raise tolls, urging the members of the Port Authority’s board to reject it and the governors of New York and New Jersey to veto the plan as proposed.
• Aug. 18 - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on the agency to scale back its plans in a joint letter to the Port Authority’s board president and vice president.
• Aug. 19 - The Port Authority's Board of Commissioners approved the scaled-back plan proposed by the two governors, which calls for E-ZPass tolls to increase by $1.50 in September and 75 cents each December from 2012 to 2015; cash tolls to increase to $12 in September with smaller increases through 2015 and PATH fares to increase 25 cents per year for the next four years.

At Tuesday's public hearing, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, who was the first to speak, said, "There must be a happy medium."

One Fort Lee Patch reader astutely pointed out something that a lot of people missed: The fact that the plan approved Friday also extends peak hours to 10 a.m. from 9 a.m., making the increase that much more for people who normally cross the bridge between 9 and 10 each morning.

District 37 Republican State Assembly candidates John Aslanian of Englewood Cliffs and Keith Jensen of Fort Lee issued a joint statement calling the scaled-back plan "burdensome and difficult to justify in light of the wasteful spending at the Authority that was highlighted by the New York state comptroller."

"The [Port Authority] must control its spending and curtail its overtime and pension costs before it asks for more money from commuters," they said. "The toll hikes, no matter how they are implemented, will be a burden to Bergen county residents and harm businesses in the region."

Now we want to know what you think. How Do you feel about the Port Authority's scaled-back plan? Do you think it was a fair compromise and the "happy medium" Sokolich referred to Tuesday? Was it scaled back enough? How will the increases affect you?