As Bergen County, NJ DOT and NJ Transit discussed a variety of expensive projects last week, funding was obviously on most minds. State Senator Paul Sarlo has indeed proposed a special transportation district for Bergen County — the district would levy impact fees from developers and invest it in infrastructure. Such a slice of local funding could help boost projects in the district as they compete for federal and state funding with other New Jersey needs.

But the biggest action needed on funding is clearly the reauthorization of New Jersey’s Transportation Trust Fund. The fund has tapped out its existing revenue streams, meaning that any future transportation capital program will need to be funded with new revenues. The conventional wisdom is that the legislature will raise the state gas tax after the 2005 state-wide elections, but there are signs that some of the state’s leaders are worried about putting action off that long.

Some legislators at the Bergen transportation summit stood up and said they were prepared to vote for a gas tax increase to fund transportation investment. Assembly Transportation Committee Chair John Wisniewski of Middlesex County said he and Republican Peter Biondi of Somerset County had just introduced A. 3414, a bill to "restore fiscal integrity and enhance funding to Transportation Trust Fund." The bill does not hike the gas tax, but anticipates a tax increase by building measures around the trust fund to help keep transportation debt from bankrupting it in the future. It would also cap NJ DOT road capacity spending at 4% of the trust fund allocation, require an increase in local aid and prevent NJ Transit from using trust fund money for basic operating expenses like salaries.

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