THE NEW YORK TIMES reported on 2/28/2009 that Democrats in the NY State Senate "would seriously consider an Assembly proposal to levy tolls on bridges over the East River and Harlem River. . . to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which faces a $1.2 billion deficit this year and has threatened to cut service and increase subway fares to close it." "That plan, which proposed tolls ranging from about $2 to $5, would also create a new payroll tax in counties served by the authority."
It's funny they say that. All current toll crossings within NYC are under Bridges & Tunnels which is also a MTA agency. For many years, B&T has made huge profits which went to NYCTA. I'm thinking that any additional B&T revenue should also go to NYCTA, MTAB and even SIR as they're NYC operations. All other MTA agencies: Long Island Bus, Long Island Railroad, Metro-North Railroad serve areas outside of New York City (5 boroughs) limits. The MTA is a state agency and a big complaint for years is that NYCTA always gets less funding than other MTA agencies.
Well, I guess they want to add the East and Harlem River Bridges to the treasure trove. The proposal would add another 4-5 bridges as sources of revenue for MTA.
Yes, they've raised this topic many times over the years. In the past it was often spoken of as an attempt to keep cars our of Manhattan's central business district. Nowadays, the revenue would clearly be a driving force. So, I guess they probably wouldn't do the upper Harlem River bridges.