Posted on 06/09/2005 5:48:31 AM PDT by Calpernia
Gov. Richard J. Codey is working on a plan to bolster the state's Transportation Trust Fund with a temporary increase in the gasoline tax and additional money generated by privatizing the New Jersey Turnpike or Garden State Parkway, according to a published report.
The Record of Bergen County, citing an unnamed administration source, reported in Thursday's editions that the plan calls for a small gas tax increase to be pushed through shortly after the Nov. 8 election. The increase would be rescinded or phased out after the lease deal is signed and begins to generate cash.
The Transportation Trust Fund pays for highway building and mass transit construction work. It's expected to run out of money next year unless additional revenue is committed to it.
New Jersey's gasoline tax is now 14.5 cents per gallon, one of the lowest in the nation. It provides $605 million a year for the trust fund, but most of that money has to be used to pay down debt.
Transportation experts have recommended that the gas tax be increased by as much as 16 cents a gallon to keep the trust fund solvent. But legislators are skittish about any increase in an election year when every member of the state Assembly must go before the voters.
Toll road leasing has been tried elsewhere, notably in Chicago, where the 7.8-mile Chicago Skyway was leased recently to a private concern, generating a $1.83 billion upfront payment.
The administration source told The Record that the lease deal would involve only one of New Jersey's toll roads and could involve only parts of the highway.
``Lawyers are actively working on it,'' the source said.
But the lease proposal is certain to draw considerable opposition and is complicated by the fact that Codey will leave office after the November election. His successor, either Democrat Jon Corzine or Republican Doug Forrester, would have to carry through the deal. And if it were to falter, the ``temporary'' gasoline tax would likely have to stay in place.
``I just don't think we should be leasing the turnpike or the parkway,'' state Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, told the newspaper, noting that they are ``clean, safe and reliable'' and also very profitable.
Just what I thought, nothing.
As a toll collector on the NJ Turnpike what worries us is what happens to the employees that work the road? What happens to our pensions?
Your pensions are a liablility of the Turnpike Authority and would be assumed by the state or the private authority. In any case, the liability would have to be funded as part of the deal.
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