LUCINSKI: Economic wisdom from the Island

By Dick Lucinski/lucinskid@gnnewspaper.com

NIAGARA FALLS — Greater Niagara Newspapers publishes the Niagara Gazette. As many of you know, GNN is a group of four daily newspapers in Niagara and Orleans counties: The Gazette, the Lockport Union Sun & Journal, the Tonawanda News and the Medina Journal-Register.

The company also distributes a number of weekly papers, one of which is the Grand Island Record. It goes to every home and business on the Island every Saturday.

The reason for this rather lengthy set-up: I’d like to introduce you to Doug and Polly Smith. The Grand Island couple writes a weekly column for the Record called the Isle File. Doug also writes a column for our sports department known as Base Paths.

The Isle File is famous for its insight and knowledge of life on the Island. But in Saturday’s edition, the couple tackled an issue that affects not only Islanders, but all of us who use the New York State Thruway: Talk about another set of toll increases.

Here’s what Doug and Polly had to say:

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Suppose you’re a Grand Island merchant and not selling quite enough of your product to cover your costs. What now?

Right, take an ad in the Record, but what’s your pitch?

How does “Try our lower prices” sound? Works for us.

So leave it to the New York State Thruway Authority to demonstrate the difference between free enterprise and a government monopoly.

While waiting in 10-deep traffic at the South Bridge about 3 p.m. Tuesday, Isle File heard that fewer people are using the Thruway. Therefore, the Authority plans to raise tolls to pick up the slack.

The Authority says higher gas prices are reducing automobile travel. Every survey Isle File’s seen suggests most folks are shrugging off the pump gouge. It couldn’t possibly be that more people are “shun-pikeing” to avoid the toll increase that just went into effect, could it?

Or could it be that drivers are fed up with paying premium price for a high-speed ride and getting bogged down in construction? Isle File encountered four delays during last week’s jaunt to Cortland. This is classic bait-and-switch, charging full price for a 65-mph ride and then delivering a five-mile parking lot. Any private business owner who practiced such tactics over the past eight years would have been wearing Eliot Spitzer like a cheap suit.

In another bait-and-switch, the Authority proposes to cut the discount for E-Z Pass holders, many of whom were lured into the program by the promise of savings, making it easier for the Authority to lay off live collectors.

Speaking of tollbooth personnel, pardon our parochialism, but Grand Island’s ultra-helpful and friendly collectors are the exception to the rule. Most downstaters Isle File encounters act as if they’re doing community service against their will, belligerently clueless when asked for a little guidance (“right or left to Lyons?”) or the state of construction itself.

If the Thruway were a business, when receipts slid, it would offer, then provide, lower prices and better service rather than shaking down its captive audience. What a concept!

On second thought, how about “Under New Management"?

— Doug and Polly Smith; the Isle File, Sept. 29

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Now I don’t know if Doug and/or Polly have had any formal economics education or training. It probably doesn’t matter. Their argument oozes so much common sense, fancy book-learnin’ isn’t really necessary. Increase the cost of something, people will use less of it or try to avoid it.

The Thruway Authority can invoke the high gasoline price bogeyman all it wants. The fact is, it increased the tolls and miscalculated the drop-off in traffic. So its solution to the problem: Increase tolls even more.

That’s the same kind of logic state officials have used for decades when it comes to taxes: When revenue drops off, raise them even more, then express astonishment when more and more New Yorkers become North Carolinians to follow the jobs that were driven out of state because of the high taxes.

It’s getting harder and harder to love New York.

Dick Lucinski is the managing editor of the Niagara Gazette.. His columns appear on Wednesdays and Sundays.