Thompson may challenge constitutionality of GI tolls

by Karen Keefe
Grand Island Dispatch, December 21, 2006

If Gov. George Pataki has Rus Thompson’s phone number, he’s not dialing it

Meanwhile, bridge toll activist Thompson, figuring silence from the governor is not golden, is planning his next move – and it could be a lawsuit, not just the silent protest he promised.

Last Wednesday, Thompson delivered nearly 5,000 petition signatures to Albany calling for removal of the Grand Island Bridge tolls. He was hoping fellow Republican Pataki would hear him out, personally, but he was directed to drop off the petitions in the mailroom.

However, Thompson did talk to the minority leader of the Assembly and his chief of staff, and he offers up a tasty tidbit: “A federal law … saying that you cannot charge people to get home.”

The possibilities are not lost on Thompson. “Seeing that the Grand Island bridges are our only way to get home, we do not have an alternate route. If there is a federal law, it would supersede any state law, and that would put the Grand Island tolls in violation of the federal law,” Thompson said at Monday’s Town Board meeting. “Could you do a little bit of research on that for me, please?” he asked Town Attorney Peter Godfrey.

Godfrey said he could talk about the matter with him at some point after the meeting. Grand Island residents with E-ZPass currently pay 9 cents a trip, while the full fare for commuters is 75 cents. The tolls were supposed to be retired in 1996, when the price of constructing the bridges was to be paid off.

Thompson said he really didn’t want to “go the lawsuit path,” because of the potential cost to taxpayers, but he would probably have to keep that option open as insurance, if other routes fail.

The petition drive continues, with at least 100 more signatures added since last week, and Thompson plans to parlay that support into a protest of Pataki’s policy.

“I want to figure out when the governor’s going to be in town, ’cause when I know the day he’s going to be in town is the day I want to have a protest on the bridge.”

Thompson doesn’t want anyone to violate any laws, just stay on the pedestrian path and make their point. “Basically, I don’t want to have yelling and screaming like a lot of the unions do. I mean, I just want to have people up on the bridge with signs – make up their own signs: ‘No tolls’ ‘Stop the tolls,’ ‘Get rid of the tolls,’ whatever they want to write on the signs.”

Thompson thinks with the Bass Pro deal likely being the one that got away, Pataki could find no better gift for the area than to get rid of another set of tolls, just like the Breckinridge and Ogden barriers.

“Come on, governor, do it,” he says.