Parkway Debate Reaches New Low
Last week, front-runners in the 2001 New Jersey Governor's race, Acting
Governor Donald DiFrancesco and Woodbridge Mayor Jim McGreevey, both told
the Star Ledger they are looking into ways to take tolls off
the Garden State Parkway for good. The removal of Parkway tolls has
become a signature issue for dark-horse candidate Bret Schundler,
the Jersey City Mayor who suggests the highway be maintained with resources
from the state budget (MTR
#305). The acceleration of anti-toll rhetoric has many observers
concerned that candidates are putting politics before common sense.
The same article quoted State Assembly Transportation Chairman Alex
DeCroce worrying that if tolls are "knocked off" the Parkway, "the highway
is going to go to hell." Candidates would do well to listen to his warning.
Saddling the state with the Parkway's $620 million debt and a full plate
of unfunded capital needs would leave NJ DOT less money for other
projects and would mean fewer resources for the upkeep of the Parkway,
an outcome unfavorable both to taxpayers and Parkway drivers (MTR
#302).
