O’Scanlon Blasts Dimwitted NY Politician for Threatening NJ Drivers with Extra $50 Fee for Entering NYC

NY Assemblyman Dinowitz Outraged NJ Might Refuse to Help Enforce City’s Scam Red Light & Speed Camera Tix

Senator Declan O’Scanlon blasted a dimwitted proposal by a New York lawmaker that would charge every New Jersey driver entering New York City a $50 fee as punishment for pending legislation that would prohibit the NJMVC from helping other states enforce automated camera tickets on Garden State motorists.

“New Jersey got rid of our red light camera program because we learned it was a scam that enriched corrupt tech companies at the expense of drivers without improving public safety,” said O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth). “Automated red light and speed camera systems are engineered to entrap drivers by shady operators that have been caught bribing politicians all over the country. The only way these systems make money is if proper yellow light and speed setting engineering criteria are ignored. Every competent, unbiased study of these systems demonstrates they have no overall safety benefit — and that’s the only measure that counts. Automated camera enforcement is a policing for profit racket that New Jersey rightfully banned. These camera systems have nothing to do with making roads safer and everything to do with making money. New Jersey doesn’t inflict these scams on our drivers or anyone else’s, and we should not be complicit in helping other states to perpetuate their automated injustice on New Jerseyans. The sooner all of these abusive programs end everywhere, the better.”

In June, the New Jersey Senate unanimously passed O’Scanlon’s “Automated Enforcement Inoculation Act,” which would shield New Jersey drivers from predatory fines for traffic violations captured by red light cameras and speed cameras in other states.

Under O’Scanlon’s legislation, S-460, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission and other State entities would be prohibited from disclosing the personal information of New Jersey drivers to help another state impose or collect a fine for alleged violations captured by automated camera ticketing systems.

Out of fear that the Empire State might lose a stream of easy camera ticket revenues from out-of-state drivers, New York Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz introduced legislation in Albany that would charge New Jersey drivers, and those from other “uncooperative” states, a punitive $50 fee every time they enter New York City.

The proposed $50 fee would be in addition to existing bridge and tunnel tolls and a $23 congestion pricing toll that New York is considering charging drivers to enter much of lower and midtown Manhattan.

“I won’t let a dimwitted New York politician try to extort New Jersey into enforcing a corrupt automated ticket racket that preys on both his constituents and my own. And it should be noted that the folks most devastatingly impacted by these systems are the poor and middle-class workers,” added O’Scanlon. “I would warn Assemblyman Dinowitz that this escalating abuse of New Jersey workers by New York will give large employers even more incentive to open satellite offices in the Garden State. You’ll lose your precious corrupt ticket revenue and billions more in income tax payments to New Jersey, all while commercial vacancies in Manhattan climb even higher. New York has the most to lose by a long shot.”