A bill introduced in Trenton by Assembly members John Wisniewski and Peter Biondi is the first initiative to grapple with the state’s dwindling transportation dollars. Wisniewski is Assembly transportation committee chair.

The bill, A.3414, is entitled the "Transportation Trust Fund Fiscal Integrity Restoration and Enhancement Act." It does not create a new revenue source to pay for future transportation investments in New Jersey. It does try to create a transportation spending policy structure to prevent the Trust Fund from being run dry when the state and its citizens do decide to raise money. Among its provisions are measures to:

• Cap annual state pay-as-you-go capital spending.

• Cap total annual bonding.

• Cap NJ DOT spending for new highway capacity at 4% of DOT’s budget (though allows exceptions for some intersection, bridge, safety and "smart growth" projects in state planning areas 1 and 2).

• Phase out NJ Transit use of capital funds for operating expenses over six years.

It is unclear so far whether Wisniewski is intent on pushing the Trust Fund policy debate in advance of the fight to raise real transportation revenue, or if the bill is intended as an opening policy position for the larger funding debate. Wisniewski has not shown how his bill’s spending and bonding caps would affect the size of the transportation program given various revenue-raising scenarios, and the exact percentages will no doubt have to be negotiated along with the amount of any gas tax or other transportation revenue measure. But the principles the bill articulates to keep the funding program solvent, rein in highway expansion and create a stronger wall between mass transit operating and capital budgets, deserve to be part of an eventual transportation finance deal.

The conventional wisdom is that the state will increase its gas tax shortly after the 2005 elections. But there are enough political wild cards at play in New Jersey, and a detectable sense of urgency among some lawmakers, that it is possible the issue will come to a head before that. 

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