newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Potential cash savings may send the jobs of a number of New Jersey toll collectors down the road.

A "request for proposals" from private companies to take over toll-collection duties on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway is expected to go out this month and will call for a five-year contract. If the board hires an agency, the jobs of 475 full-time toll collectors on the turnpike and parkway will be affected.

NorthJersey.com reports nearly 200 agency employees – including toll collectors, maintenance personnel, technicians and office staff – pleaded with the board in December to abandon any plans for privatizing toll collections.

There are 300 New Jersey Turnpike toll workers right now, while the Garden State Parkway uses 175. The salaries currently paid to toll collectors amounts to $33 million, while E-Z Pass collected 70 percent of the tolls.

NJ.com reported that Gov. Chris Christie created a task force in March to study whether the state would save money if public jobs or agencies were operated by private companies. A report released by the panel in July said the state may save as much as $43 million a year by allowing a private company to collect tolls.

New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson said other tasks such as guardrail repair and highway maintenance are being considered for privatization.

Meanwhile, managers at the authority are in talks with the toll collectors' union. Their contracts expire June 30. Simpson declined to discuss negotiations, but Frank Forst, an official with Local 194 of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers union, said during a December meeting that authority management wanted a $15,000 cut in toll collector salaries across the board.

According to the Asbury Park Press, Franceline Ehret, president of Local 194 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents 1,200 authority employees, said outsourcing will take what are now middle-class jobs and reduce them to minimum-wage jobs. That would negatively affect the state and local tax bases and the economy, according to Ehret. She said her union recognizes the tough economic conditions and is willing to negotiate on other issues, including work rules.

Either way, Simpson said that come July 1, there would be fewer toll collectors on the turnpike and parkway.

Turnpike Authority spokesman Tom Feeney said the authority would require any successful bidder to give the right of first refusal on job openings to any displaced Turnpike Authority employee.