New Jersey’s transportation establishment has its work cut out for it if a recent Asbury Park Press editorial is at all reflective of public thinking about the state of transportation finance in the state.

On June 15, the Press urged New Jersey residents to oppose any increase in the state gasoline tax, claiming the Transportation Trust Fund is not in fact in crisis.  The piece flatly stated: “There is no way to justify a tax increase of any kind when the state continues to squander hundreds of millions of dollars on everything from school construction programs, to government worker pensions and health benefits, to wasteful duplication of services.”  However, the Transportation Trust Fund is not used to fund any of these “wastes,” and is indeed tapped out thanks to the borrow-and-spend transportation binge the state has indulged in for at least the past decade.

The Press further argued “The problem was fiscal mismanagement, the diversion of dedicated gas tax money from the Transportation Trust Fund to the general treasury, a pay-to-play system that provided inflated no-bid contracts to politically connected firms, and transportation agencies that serve as patronage pits for the political party in power.”

Unfortunately, no amount of corruption fighting or fancy accounting will change the fact that available gas tax revenues will all be required for debt service as early as next summer. New revenue streams need to be established in New Jersey, or everything from pothole repair to train maintenance will come to a screeching halt.

New Jersey continues to have big ambitions for transportation improvements. Coalitions demanding new commuter rail lines and links abound. The Asbury Park Press has editorialized numerous times in favor of extended rail access between the Jersey Shore and New York City.  These are things worth paying for and will foster continued prosperity in the state and region in this century.  But New Jersey has to get clear on the magnitude of its transportation finance deficit.

MTR back issues:

Go to index of all Mobilizing the Region back issues.