N.J. pushing to privatize toll collecting

TRENTON - A plan to privatize manual collections on New Jersey's two major toll roads could save the state millions of dollars, but it's likely to cost 800 full- and part-time toll collectors their jobs.

Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson says the state is slowly moving toward all-electronic toll collections. He said two reports issued since Gov. Christie took office 15 months ago have bolstered the administration's push to privatize manual toll collections on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway.

Simpson said more than 70 percent of the $960 million in toll revenue collected last year came through E-ZPass. He said it cost the state $53 million for the E-ZPass collections and $100 million to collect the 25 percent of tolls paid in cash.

Put another way, it cost the state 16 cents to process an electronic transaction, compared with $1.02 to collect a toll manually.

"In a nutshell, manual toll collection is simply way too expensive," said Simpson, who testified before the Assembly State Government Committee on Thursday during a hearing called to find out more about the plan.

Simpson said he was constrained from talking in detail about the privatization plan because he has been named in a lawsuit brought by a toll-takers' union seeking to stop it.

He said privatization efforts were advancing, but no final decision had been made.

The Turnpike Authority is set to vote next week on proposals by vendors to take over toll operations starting this summer.

Simpson said the union's latest wage-concession proposal was also being reviewed.

Fran Ehret, president of the turnpike workers' local, said the proposal would save the authority up to $12 million.

State AFL-CIO president Charlie Wowkanech testified that the authority had refused to bargain. He said the privatization proposal set starting wages for full-time toll-takers as low as $12 per hour, or less than $25,000 a year.

The top salary for New Jersey toll-takers now is just under $66,000 a year.

A Rutgers University professor who also testified warned of dire consequences for toll-takers if privatization were implemented.

"There are some very predicable outcomes if you privatize," said Jeff Keefe, a professor in the School of Management and Labor Relations. "Many of these people will never work again. A number of them will commit suicide.

"We're going to do a lot of damage to people and their families - damage they won't recover from," Keefe said.

Simpson said he was aware of the trauma privatizing would cause the work force, even though the administration did remove a clause from the outsourcing proposal that would have required vendors to offer jobs to the existing work force first.

Assemblywoman Linda Stender, a Democrat who chaired the hearing, said afterward that she believed the Republican administration had not been bargaining in good faith. She said she would ask for documents that showed when the sides met.

She said contract issues that Simpson complained about - like having to pay employees overtime for working their birthdays or having to schedule at least two workers at every interchange - should be negotiated.