New Jersey Road Projects Shut Down as State Spins Its Wheels on Gas Tax

by Steph Willems

Published: July 11th, 2016

new jersey road projects shut down as state spins its wheels on gas tax

The Garden State remains the cheapest place to fill up in the Northeast, and you can thank government indecision for it.

Lawmakers in New Jersey can’t decide on what to do about their state’s bone-dry transportation fund, and residents are equally divided on how to pay for future road projects. That means pump prices will stay low for the time being.

A plan to raise the state’s famously low gas taxes by 23 cents a gallon hit a brick wall before the Independence Day weekend, after the Legislature failed to reach an agreement. As a result, Governor Chris Christie issued a call to stop all non-essential road and rail projects.

The state’s Transportation Trust Fund is expected to run out of money on August 1, though federal funding will still roll in for certain services.

Residents polled about a plan to amend the state’s constitution (to have all revenue from future and current gas taxes go towards road projects) were as divided as British referendum voters. Only 51 percent supported a constitutional amendment, which will be a question on this November’s ballot.

“With TTF funding soon to run out, and various solutions floated recently by the Governor and legislature seemingly going nowhere, voters remain lukewarm to the idea of amending the state constitution in order to address the TTF’s shortfall,” Krista Jenkins, director of polling firm PublicMind, told NJ.com.

The shutdown of non-essential projects means pothole repair and road resurfacing won’t go ahead until new state-level transportation funds are found. According to the New York Times, the plan to hike the gas tax, which was supported by Christie, bogged down after lawmakers couldn’t agree whether to offset the gas tax increase with a reduction in other areas, such as the sales tax or estate tax.

#GasPrices #GasTax #Gasoline #Infrastructure #NewJersey #RoadRepair

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7 of 91 comments

Speedlaw on Jul 11, 2016

If gas taxes fix roads, then they should keep pace with inflation. They are fair...use more gas, pay more. Drive a heavier car, pay more. An inflation index would fix the problem. No GPS tracking/taxes, no government database. (hey, they know where you are anyway...there are a LOT of ez pass readers for tracking/stats, not revenue) I suffer the NYC roads every day. They all suck, save the NY Thruway, Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, all separately managed toll roads. We have to pay for roads...an inflation indexed user tax is the most fair way. Using an SUV/CUV is entirely reasonable on these roads...you gotta be able to take a hit. Christie scares me. I want him nowhere near the White House. His veto of a much needed rail tunnel under the Hudson shows a shortsightedness you don't want in folks up that high. Yes, it was expensive, but sometimes you have to fix the roof when you don't really want to-and money is historically cheap now.. Don't confuse wasted tax money (war in Iraq, Dick Cheney's pension and medical care) with tax money spent on essential services, like bridge construction. We have a lovely set of 1930's and 1940's roads, but since Robert Moses, nothing has been built...we've only minimally maintained roads that my Grandfather paid for, drove with his 59 Imperial, in a world with half the traffic. Index gas tax to inflation...use it ONLY on roads and bridges, no subways, buses or other mass transit (the cross subsidy kills roads in NYC...all that bridge toll is flushed down the subway). I've been lucky enough to drive in first world nations....and our roads aren't first world any more. The whole estate tax or sales tax juggle in conjunction with this was just to muddy the waters, or get CC's campaign contributors the estate tax relief they so want. You do realize that the vast majority of normal Americans are below Estate Tax exemptions...so this IS a 1% issue only and not a fair swap off gas taxes to fix roads. Someone drown Grover Norquist in a bathtub, please.

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- 56BelAire on Jul 12, 2016
  
  Christie vetoed the rail tunnel in 2010 when the state transportation board issued a report that the tunnel originally budgeted at $8.7 billion would run....AT LEAST....$2.5 billion over budget. The NJ taxpayers would have been on the hook for that. And we all know NJ already had a huge budget deficit.
  
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- Speedlaw on Jul 12, 2016
  
  @56BelAire This is the sort of project where you need buy in from NY, NJ and the Feds. The existing tunnel was built in the age of steam, and every rail commuter can cite my automotive complaints about ancient infrastructure. If we have the money to re-arrange sand in backward nations we have no business being in, a tunnel in the middle of one of the richest areas of the US is a valid project. CC is a bit nuts. Look at his current education proposals which would impoverish urban districts while giving a tax cut to rich areas...somewhere, the Koch Bros. are smiling. We have lots of money, all for the wrong reasons, but the tap closes when it would be used for the general good.
  
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2manycars on Jul 11, 2016

Stop squandering money on social programs and there will be plenty of money to fix the roads.

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- Highdesertcat on Jul 11, 2016
  
  That's what people voted for: social programs. That's what the majority wants: welfare without having to work. They don't care about roads. If they don't work, there's no need to drive. Or own a car. Just trade their food stamps for drugs.
  
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- VoGo on Jul 11, 2016
  
  @highdesertcat Wow. Peas in a pod. But a few points for those who value the facts: 1. roads *are* a social program. What you really mean to say is that you want the government to spend money on you, and not on people you view as different from you. 2. Of course the majority of American voters have cars. There are 300 million cars in the US. 3. The majority of people in the US are not on food stamps. And of course the majority of those don't trade them for drugs, legal or otherwise. They actually use them to prevent starvation. The people who tell these lies do so with a purpose: to disparage and disenfranchise the majority of Americans who use our roads on a daily basis.
  
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- Bd2 on Jul 13, 2016
  
  @highdesertcat Spending on welfare has been curtailed for the past few decades. Spending on the military took up 55% of the discretionary spending in 2015. Aside from the military, the vast bulk of govt. is non-discretionary spending (Social Security and Medicare). As for foodstamps - there are plenty of working people in foodstamps (who get paid minimum wage or close to it and have to support a family). And there are plenty of people who miss the threshold on being eligible for foodstamps and have to turn to food banks (which have been burdened by ever increasing demand).
  
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