Assembly Minority Leader Joseph Doria (Bayonne) and Assemblyman Anthony Impreveduto of Hudson and Bergen Counties introduced the "Transportation Trust Fund Extension Act" (A251), adopting infrastructure repair, safety, and anti-sprawl proposals crafted by the Tri-State Campaign and unsuccessfully offered by Democrats as amendments to the State Senate's Trust Fund bill in recent weeks (MTR # 269). Doria's bill would - over the next five years - require NJDOT to direct spending to repair half of the structurally deficient bridges and roads across the State, the construction of all rail freight projects outlined in the agency's Rail Freight Master Plan, make investments to reduce pedestrian fatalities by one-third, and significantly increase the state's bikeway network.

The bill, co-sponsored by thirteen other Democratic Assemblymembers, would also prohibit NJDOT from building new highways through land designated as rural farmland and environmentally-sensitive habitat by the State Development and Redevelopment Plan. In addition, it would require NJTransit to specifically purchase compressed natural gas fuel buses to operate in cities with population over 33,000 or a population density of more than 1,500 per square mile.

In contrast, the five-year goals set by Senate President Donald DiFrancesco's Transportation Trust Fund Renewal Bill that awaits a floor vote June 8th are left to NJ DOT to define and could be changed by the agency on a yearly basis. The current Senate bill contains no directive that transportation projects should be compatible with the State Plan, and proposes only that NJTransit create a "strategy" to replace its diesel bus fleet with buses that will reduce "emission of air pollutants."

Assembly Republicans are likely to release their Trust Fund bill next week. While the Republicans hold a majority in the chamber, it is not the three-fifths needed to constitutionally dedicate new revenues to the Transportation Trust Fund, a feature of both the Senate and the Assembly Democrats' bills. If Assembly Republicans follow a similar approach to financing the Trust Fund, at least some of the Democrats' goals may have to be satisfied in the final Assembly bill.