Governor McGreevey’s Blue Ribbon Transportation Commission will hold hearings on October 20 and 22 in Newark and New Brunswick, respectively. The governor established the commission early in the year to identify major infrastructure needs and recommend ways to pay for them.

A NJ DOT spokesperson told reporters last week that the hearings are to solicit input from drivers, transit riders and citizens about improving transportation in the state.

It’s not clear the hearings will do that effectively, or what the commission really expects to get out of them. Only one hearing is in the evening, when most working citizens can attend (Weds., Oct. 22nd in New Brunswick — see calendar). Neither the Tri-State Transportation Campaign nor other public interest groups contacted by MTR last week received direct notice of the meetings.

If the commission’s purpose is to develop strong policy recommendations and prepare the ground for the state to raise new revenue to meet New Jersey’s transport needs, a better use of the hearings might have been to accompany them with the issuance of a statement of findings and a broad menu of options for increasing transportation spending for hearing attendees to respond to. Instead, the sessions appear to be open-mike affairs without any guidance about what the commission is after.

A low-level buzz in Trenton says the administration may propose some form of state gas tax increase after the November legislative elections. New Jersey has one of the lowest state gas taxes in the country, and the state will likely need new revenue during the next few years to avoid transportation spending reductions.

How a gas tax increase or other revenue measure will be received by transportation policy reform constituencies will depend on what the state says it will spend the new money on, and how it plans to guarantee agency compliance with any such announced spending plan.

MTR back issues:

Go to index of all Mobilizing the Region back issues