GRAND SLAM: John Catsimatidis took a shot at Joe Lhota for raising MTA bridge and tunnel tolls.
GRAND SLAM: John Catsimatidis (left) took a shot at Joe Lhota for raising MTA bridge and tunnel tolls. (
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Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis called for a 10-year freeze on bridge and tunnel tolls after rapping rival Joe Lhota for increasing the price before stepping down as MTA chairman in December.
“It’s a sin what they’re doing with the tolls. Somebody just left the MTA and raised the tolls going out the door,” supermarket mogul Catsimatidis said in a dig at Lhota.
The cash toll on MTA bridges and tunnels goes up to $15 a round trip on Sunday, though regular commuters — particularly Staten Islanders, who can’t drive off the borough without paying a toll — get E-ZPass discounts.
“The toll increases are beyond the call of duty,” Catsimatidis said before holding a “toll fairness” event at the Verrazano Bridge with Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-Brooklyn/SI), who endorsed him last week.
Surplus toll revenues are used to subsidize the MTA’s capital program for subways and buses.
Lhota generally received good reviews during his one-year stewardship of the MTA and yesterday said the agency’s financing “is broken” and needs to be overhauled.
“There is no reason for the almost $600 million surplus collected from our bridges and tunnels to be used to subsidize” commuter railroads and subways, Lhota said, adding he would like to see control of the MTA’s bridges and tunnels “transferred to the mayor and City Council.”