(The Center Square) — New York is losing hundreds of millions of dollars from unpaid tolls, according to a report, which faults the state for failing to do enough to collect the money from scofflaws evading the cashless toll system.
The analysis by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority found the state’s cashless tolling system is owed more than $350 million in unpaid tolls and other related fees – such as fines – which make up more than 90% of the Thruway Authority’s operating revenue. In 2025, the MTA’s bridges and tunnels carried 340 million vehicles, and tolls generated $2.5 billion the year before, the agency said.
“While most drivers pay, some deliberately evade tolls, creating revenue losses that impact the entire transit system,” the report’s authors wrote. “Because this funding supports subway, bus, rail, and bridge and tunnel improvements, collecting unpaid tolls is a real priority.”
The report’s authors said a majority of the scofflaws are drivers who “intentionally” ignore notices about overdue and unpaid toll charges, even after threats of suspending drivers’ licenses.
“When these drivers receive their toll bills, they intentionally and repeatedly ignore invoices and violation notices,” they wrote. “Becoming a Persistent Toll Violator isn’t easy — it takes repeated action, disregard for the law, and three separate violation notices in a five-year period.”
The MTA noted that the state Legislature took steps to address the problem by increasing financial penalties for “ghost” plates that are covered or obscured and cracking down on e-commerce retailers who sell products that block license plates. The agency said it launched a multi-agency task force to remove drivers with ghost plates from New York City roadways and has stepped up other enforcement actions.
Those reforms were proposed by a state commission that studied the scope of fare evasion and came up with recommendations to crack down on it. The MTA said the task force has produced results, citing more than $60 million in unpaid tolls and fees being collected as of February, with 6,744 vehicles towed and 1,644 arrests for outstanding fines and violations.
But the report’s authors said because only two of the five recommendations have been adopted, the state’s efforts to crack down on violators “have slowed the growth of toll evasion, but not reversed it.”
The value of unpaid tolls tied to ghost plates increased from 2022 to 2024, according to the report. Preliminary estimates for 2025 indicate a slight dip from the $56 million in un-collected tolls “but not a significant decline” since new enforcement actions were adopted, the report’s authors said.
The MTA is urging lawmakers to approve a package of legislation that would enable the MTA to more forcefully address ghost plate use, empower the MTA to pursue PTVs more aggressively, and more effectively collect unpaid tolls from repeat offenders. The agency said the changes, if approved, “would provide an overdue benefit to honest drivers whose tolls have been covering for others who cheat the system.”
“None of these proposals target the everyday driver who accidentally misses a toll,” the report’s authors wrote. “This is about closing the gap on intentional, repeated bad behavior.”
