New CBB Resident Toll Rebate Program goes into effect 7/23/10

According to the MTA:

Effective Friday July 23, 2010, there will be changes to the Rockaway Resident Rebate program as a result of service cuts instituted by the MTA Board to help close a nearly $800 million budget deficit.

The first two trips taken on each E-ZPass tag between 12:01 AM and midnight on any given day will be charged a resident rate of $1.13 per trip. After the first two trips, all other Cross Bay crossings on the same tag on the same day will be rebated.

Each tag on an account (up to four allowed per account) will not be charged more than a total of $2.26 during a 24-hour period between 12:01 AM to midnight. Please make sure there are funds in your account to cover these charges.

This new "tax" on Broad Channel residents could not have come at a worse time. 

It was bad enough that our local police precinct, (100th Pct), Community Board (CB14), State Assemblywoman and City Council member district offices and the nearest large supermarket are all located in Rockaway, within the space of just the past few months we have lost our town's pharmacy, our laundromat and our town's post office sub-station.

Although many of our elected politicians still pay lip service to this issue, their fight with the MTA is all but over.  Their mantra is now (to parapharse John Donne), "Send not to ask for whom the bridge tolls, it tolls for thee!"

Nevertheless, Rick Horan, who sits with the Board of Directors for the Rokaway Park Civic Association is not giving up just yet.  In this week's edition of The Wave, Mr. Horan writes...

The MTA has apparently used the current budget crisis as an excuse to reinstitute a toll that is unfair and perhaps even ilegal.  And it's not only about money.

Appaently, Jay Walder, Chairman of the MTA, has reversed himself and is now saying that even if (the MTA) found the $3 million that our unjustified tolls amount to each year, he would allocate it elsewhere and keep us paying the tolls.

So, what should we do?  Well the MTA and all of our elected officials need to hear from us, loud and clear.

Here's how...

1.  Go to the MTA's website  and send the agency an email stating your displeasure with new "tax".

2.  Contact the MTA's Public Affairs Office at 646-242-7417 to register your displeasure.

3.  Visit the Rockaway Park Civic Association's website to send a pre-written email to the MTA and all of our state, city and local representatives.

4.  Tell all your friends to do the same.  If none of this works, we will organize a huge march and rally once we have all seen our E-Z Pass bills go up by about $70 a month. Stay tuned.

Would that there were more of us like Mr. Horan.  His spirit of "It ain't over until the fat lady sings and maybe not even then!" is exactly what we need right now!
If this issue concerns you, then your next steps have been laid out very specifically by Mr. Hoaran above. 

If the "fat lady starts to sing" and the tolls do go into effect  then it would behoove all of us to join with Mr. Horan and perhaps cause a little traffic congestion on our local bridge, perhaps on a nice, warm, weekend beach day, as a way of saying "thank you" to the MTA and our e;ected officials!