At April’s TransAction conference — NJ’s annual statewide transportation gathering — an attempt by Martin Robins of Rutgers’ Bloustein School to identify common ground during a panel on NJ Transportation Trust Fund reauthorization entitled "No Money! Now What?" ended unsuccessfully. Leaders from each side of the aisle disagreed vehemently (though politely) on the question of raising the New Jersey gas tax. Assemblyman John Wisniewski, head of the transport committee, gave a rousing stump speech for hiking the tax. He cited the state’s urgent needs, transportation’s role in NJ’s economy, mounting debt from bonding and the need for bi-partisan support.

Assemblyman Alex DeCroce, former transportation committee chair and now Minority Leader, said he wasn’t so sure a gas tax hike is needed. He doesn’t want to ask "John Q. Public" to pay more without fully investigating opportunities to trim the budget, or moving money from other places. He said he would not call on his members to support a tax increase when Governor McGreevey’s web page states that he will not sign a gas tax increase, and until the governor and treasurer stop "stealing" money intended for the state Transportation Trust Fund from statutorily dedicated taxes (from the toll roads and other fees), from the NJTransit fare increase and from excess gas tax revenue which goes into the General Fund.