Poll: Port Authority toll hike a bad idea

TRENTON – The prospect of toll hikes on the bridges and tunnels connecting New Jersey and New York should be

TRENTON – The prospect of toll hikes on the bridges and tunnels connecting New Jersey and New York should be deep-sixed, according to a poll of Garden State voters.

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A Quinnipiac University poll released today shows that New Jersey voters oppose increasing tolls by a 54 to 41 percent margin no matter what the economic conditions.

Rural voters, who may be less likely to drive into New York, split 47 to 47 percent, the independent poll found.

Urban voters, also somewhat less dependent on cars, split 47 to 49 percent.  Opposition grows from 55 to 41 percent in the Philadelphia suburbs to 57 to 37 percent among voters in shore areas, the poll found. 

“Just about everyone in New Jersey has heard about the Port Authority’s toll proposals and they’re not popular,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.  “Even in South Jersey, where there’s another Port Authority which controls toll bridges to Pennsylvania, voters are opposed.”

A majority of voters – 54 percent – blame the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey for the proposed toll hikes, while only 28 percent blame the governors of New York and New Jersey, even when it is pointed out that the governors appoint the Port Authority board members.

By a 38 to 17 percent margin, New Jersey voters have an unfavorable opinion of the Port Authority, with 43 percent who haven’t heard enough about the authority to form an opinion.

 “Most voters don’t think there’s any economic justification for toll increases,” Carroll said.

“And voters blame the faceless entity called ‘the Port Authority,’ rather than the flesh and blood governors, Christopher Christie in New Jersey and Andrew Cuomo in New York, who appoint the people who want to raise the tolls.”

From Aug. 9 – 15, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,624 registered voters with a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percentage points.  Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones. 

 

More women in elective office

Fifty-four percent of N.J. voters believe there should be more women in high elective office, while 33 percent believe there are enough women in office, according to another Quinnipiac poll released today.

Women voters want more women in office 65 to 27 percent while men barely support the call for more women 42 to 39 percent.

According to the poll, 80 percent of voters say male politicians are more likely than women to have sex scandals.

Poll: Port Authority toll hike a bad idea