The $9.6 million raised by NJTransit’s recent fare hike will be used to finance general state programs, not to maintain or improve transit service, as state leaders promised riders last winter.

According to the Bergen Record, NJTransit will receive $5.6 million less in operating funding from the state this year and an additional $4 million originally intended to ease bus overcrowding in Bergen County will not be administered.

In essence, NJ Transit riders have been singled out for a tax increase to meet the state’s fiscal shortfall.The portion of NJTransit’s budget that comes through the farebox, which was already one of the highest nationwide, has now reached a new high.

In statements to the Record, a NJ Dept of Transportation spokesman lamely explained that, since the agency did not anticipate revenue from a fare hike when it prepared its 2002 budget, programs and services will not be affected by the lost state funding.

This is a sharp departure from the agency’s pre-fare hike “emergency” rhetoric.Then-NJTransit chief effrey Warsh told the Record in early January that post-September 11 budget strains necessitated rapid action on a fare hike.“If there was a provision in the statute for an emergency fare increase, I’ve got to believe that that would be implemented at this point,” he said.

NJTransit officials also told press and transit riders last winter that they would seek more money from the state to fund operations, rounding out a long-term plan that did not place the brunt of the agency’s fiscal burden on the backs of riders.

Then-state transportation commissioner James Weinstein told the Star-Ledger in December that a fare hike, “isn’t going to solve [the budget gap], but it will pay for a portion of it.We’ll still have to talk about increasing state subsidies and increased capital investment in the system.”Now, this year, the state has gone the other way and reduced its support for transit.“It’s fraud on the voters and certainly a fraud against transit riders,” Tri-State Campaign director Janine Bauer told the Record. “No matter what excuse you use to raise money from riders and taxpayers, like saying we need new trains, if we give them more money they take it, and we never get better service. We’re totally fed up.”

NJ Fare Increase: Public Process Survives  (Jan. 14, 2002)

NJ Transit's Holiday Hearings Can't Keep Riders Away (Jan. 7, 2002)

NJ Transit Pushes Lame Duck Fare Hike (Dec. 17, 2001)

MTR search facility and back issues:

Search our database of all past issues of Mobilizing the Region since Fall, 1994.

Go to index of all Mobilizing the Region back issues