Posted on 10/27/2010 1:51:02 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
TRENTON, N.J. – Gov. Chris Christie cited New Jersey’s lack of money Wednesday in standing by his decision to kill a train tunnel connecting his state to New York City, a move that will force the state to repay $350 million it was given to start the nation’s biggest public works project. Christie, a rising star in the Republican Party for his fearless budget-slashing, has argued that his cash-strapped state can’t afford to pay for any overruns on the $9 billion-plus rail tunnel under the Hudson River. The state is on the hook for $2.7 billion plus overruns. “In the end, my decision does not change,” Christie said. “I cannot place upon the citizens of New Jersey an open-ended letter of credit, and that’s what this project represents.”
Remember the Big Dig in Boston? Christie is correct. If they are going to do a project like that, for the taxpayers’ benefit, it should be a firm fixed price.
Hooray for Chris Christie!
This is what we need in the White House, period.
9 billion dollars.
Now. Just WHO are ones who get 10 billion dollars in “benefits” - requiring just a measly 10 percent rate of return!! - for the 9 billion being spent? (Assuming no cost overruns, no delays, no enviro stops or reroutes or investigations obviously.)
Just WHERE are those who get the (potential!) 10 billion in benefits?
Meanwhile in Seattle:
Sound Transit buys crumbling home after tunnel mistake
. . . “families have complained about foundation issues and cracking since the tunnel boring project for the Central Link Light Rail line. Juyol Yun says she’s had numerous cracks in her walls since the work.”
“Sound Transit blames the contractor, Obayashi, for miscalculating the soil composition when it did the tunnel boring through Beacon Hill. It’s now doing repair work around the Beacon Hill Station, filling holes and further testing the composition.”
Just one of those shovel reday projects that produce huge debt....and only temporary UNION jobs.
There is just no reason to build it even if the funds were available; there are less people commuting than several years ago (due to less jobs on BOTH sides of the river), and there are many other infrastructure repairs that need to be addressed first.
The will to stand for what is right. The will to make the painful choices. We are going to need more like him. Maybe we can clone his spine for the national leadership.
ML/NJ
In a world fast moving to teleconferencing and telecommuting, this project is akin to investing in a huge facility to process horse manure at the turn of the 20th century. Yes, there once was a time that horse manure piled up on NYC streets like snowdrifts, but that was a temporary problem quickly resolved with the technological advance of the automobile.
It won’t be long before people wasting 2-3 hours daily to commute into NYC from NJ will be a small minority while the ones with common sense work locally or at home and simply hook up virtually whenever group meetings are needed.
Imagine the gains in productivity if 90% of NJ commuters into NYC could save 1, 2 or 3 hours every work day!
When you see the current and projected ridership levels, you’d wonder why this is newsworthy; it is a very small part of the population here that is even impacted.
One could look at the whole thing another way.
How far should the taxpayers of New Jersey go to subsidize and assist the daily migration of their workers into Manhattan, to the greater tax benefit of Manhattan and New York State (***), a process that is needed to help big Manhattan employers get enough employees to keep their big Manhattan operations (because the housing expenses in Manhattan dictate that millions who work in New York either desire or must live outside the city - for economic reasons alone).
Maybe New Jersey if it has need to cater to the big employers in Manhattan, should, instead of subsidizing this migration so much, offer the big Manhattan employers incentives to putting more of their operations in New Jersey where their great New Jersey-based employees live. Imagine if Connecticut and the New York counties outside of Manhattan started thinking the same way about their subsidies for “transportation”, meant to serve the empire builders in Manhattan, not them.
(***)I worked in NY for decades. I paid very little income taxes to New Jersey, even after I moved to New Jersey and continued to work in NY. The New York income tax rates are higher - even the “non-resident” income tax rate, on income earned from NY employment, was more than than the “resident” tax rate in New Jersey; and all the income tax paid to NY was deductible against the income tax due New Jersey, which usually meant I either owed New Jersey nothing or very little.
It’s like the high speed rail between Chicago and St.Louis. Neither place has any money or jobs.
It is the ultimate example of going nowhere fast.
In other words, he wanted to keep the project going and going...
I see the same thing down here in Atlanta: “We NEED to get this (federally subsidized) program going (with local tax dollars) because otherwise we will “lose” all those federal dollars that are included/required to get the local tax dollars spent.
But seldom a thought given publicly to “why do we need to do this, and how much PER PERSON are we spending”?
Sounds like it is just to get people to sporting events...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.