Background
Loveys is the son of Philisophy Augustus Loveys and J. Violet Jacobs Lovey.
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Ralph Loveys
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In 1988, Loveys was nominated to serve as head of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority by Governor Thomas Kean, but resigned after a year in office when Governor James Florio would not support a toll increase package Loveys had supported. A resident of Florham Park, Loveys was first elected to the General Assembly in 1983, where vehicle insurance was one of the major issues he worked on in the legislature. Legislation introduced by Loveys and passed unanimously in the Assembly in June 1985 mandated a redesign of the New Jersey driver"s license to allow organ donation information to be entered on the license itself, a proposal that the Transplant Foundation of New Jersey estimated could triple organ donations in the state.
As chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee, Loveys and Assembly Speaker Chuck Hardwick announced plans in March 1987 to introduce legislation that would cut premium rates for bodily insurance coverage by 36%, yielding a reduction of $90 per year for drivers.
In December 1988 New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean nominated Loveys to succeed Joseph A. Sullivan as chairman of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, a position that carried no salary. The New Jersey Senate confirmed Loveys" nomination in February 1989.
Resignation over toll rates
The first wave of toll increases which Loveys proposed in September 1989 was expected to add 40% to the existing toll rates in order to cover the cost of planned road-widening projects, and by 1996 would more than double rates, increasing the cost for a car traveling the full length of the 117 miles (188 km) Turnpike from $2.70 to $6.35 once the full package had been implemented. Loveys resigned from his position as chairman in February 1990 during a public hearing on proposed toll increases for vehicles using the New Jersey Turnpike, after Governor Jim Florio announced that he was unwilling to support the increases Loveys recommended.
The increases were said to be necessary to prevent the Turnpike Authority from being in technical default on billions of dollars in bonds it had issued in 1985 to cover construction costs.
Florio"s statement accepting Loveys" resignation stated that information coming from Loveys was "confirming our suspicion that management of the Turnpike has left something to be desired". Florio said that he would not allow a toll increase to go through and named commissioner Frank Rogers to serve as acting chairman following Loveys" departure. In September 2010, the younger Loveys was selected to serve out the remaining four months in the term of Randolph Mayor Jay Alpert, who resigned in August.
Membership
In a statement released about the nomination, Kean said, "Loveys has served with distinction in the Assembly and has taken on some of the most difficult public policy issues our state faces." In January 1989, Alex DeCroce, a member of the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders, was named to fill Loveys" vacant seat in the General Assembly. Despite his resignation as chairman, Loveys remained a member of the commission that oversaw the Turnpike.
