As if on cue, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, Chair of the New Jersey Assembly’s Transportation Committee, said last week he would sponsor a bill for a state gas tax increase. But he said such a bill would only provide a short-term solution to NJ’s transportation funding woes. In his remark’s at the TransAction conference in Atlantic City, he advocated for higher DMV fees permanently dedicated to transportation capital spending. Currently, only $200 million of the $700-$900 million in annual DMV revenue goes towards transportation (the remainder goes into the general fund).

New Jersey’s gas tax, at 10.5 cents, is among the lowest state gas tax in the U.S.. The state’s transportation trust fund, which distributes transportation construction funds from state revenues, needs to be reauthorized, with new revenue sources, in 2004.

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