Federal transportation agencies are contemplating action that would halt the flow of U.S. highway and mass transit funding to New Jersey.

   According to a draft letter obtained by the Star-Ledger Wednesday, federal transportation officials are concerned that there is no effective financing for New Jersey’s overall transportation plan or its constituent projects. Specifically, the Federal Highway and Federal Transit Administrations may not approve the 2006-2008 State Transportation Improvement Program.  The program must get federal sign-off for federal funds to flow into the state’s transportation projects.

   The absence of an adequate financial plan stems from the fact that the state will run out of its own transportation funding next year, and no solution is visibly in the works. Federal funding requires various levels of state and local matching funds, so that a collapse of state transportation finance triggers the additional woe of turning off the federal spigot.

   Watchdogs have pointed out the cracks in New Jersey’s transportation funding system for some time, and inevitably they are now they are growing into big, highly visible fractures. 

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