"Turnpike toll revenues, for example, should only be used for their intended purpose, which is providing a well-maintained turnpike for its travelers," he said.
Kate Slevin, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, which advocates for more transit funding in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, said it was reasonable to ask toll roads to share the wealth.
"Our transportation network is interconnected, so it makes sense to use toll revenue on projects that reduce traffic congestion on the turnpike and parkway," she said.
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority last week agreed to contribute an additional $324 million a year to the state. Since 2007, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has sent $3.1 billion - more than it collected in tolls - to Harrisburg for statewide use.
Tolls will go up again Jan. 1 on the New Jersey Turnpike (53 percent), Garden State Parkway (50 percent), and Pennsylvania Turnpike (10 percent for cash customers; none for E-ZPass users).
"There is so little appetite to find new revenue that toll roads become an easy target, because they generate their own money," said Craig Shuey, the chief operating officer of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
The American Trucking Associations is "very much opposed to those sorts of toll increases," said Sean McNally, a spokesman for the group.
"We prefer that the funds stay with the toll facility . . . [for] the benefit of the users of the facility," he said.
The association has urged, instead, a 15-cent increase in the current 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax to finance transportation projects.
