Welcome to New Jersey: Please Hand Over Your Wallet
Posted November 29, 2007

If you think the cost of commuting in New Jersey is high now, get ready, ‘cause you ain’t seen nothing yet!

According to Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, Governor Corzine’s plan “to restructure the state’s financial affairs” may translate into a tripling of highway tolls.  The Star Ledger reported that Wisniewski based his estimate on remarks by New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri “that the state gasoline tax would have to jump from 14.5 cents per gallon to 58.5 cents per gallon to meet future transportation expansion and maintenance needs.”  Wisniewski noted that “[i]f administration officials know the minimum amount the motor fuels tax would need to be increased, then they also must know the minimum amount tolls must increase to meet the same goals.” 

While, as the Ledger reports, Corzine has indicated that he would rather not raise gas taxes – only doing so “as a last resort” – he nonetheless has pointed to the certainty of toll hikes, saying that “[t]here will be increases in tolls whether we implement my plan or we don’t implement my plan.”  

And his famous “plan,” as we’ve come to know over the last weeks and months and as he indicated in his recent address to the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, is his “asset monetization” plan, or “leveraging the untapped value in the state’s toll roads in order to dramatically pay down debt and create a permanent funding source for the state’s Transportation Trust Fund….”

According to Somers Point attorney and radio program host Seth Grossman, “[T]here are only three ways to ‘monetize’ or get money from an asset.  You can sell it, lease it, or borrow against it.”  The governor claims he has no intention of either selling our toll roads or leasing them to a private bidder or foreign owner.  Newsday.com reports that the governor “plans to create a nonprofit agency to manage toll roads and issue bonds to bring the state a cash infusion to pay at least half of the … state debt.”  The article goes on to say that “[t]he bond would be paid back by increased tolls.”  If this plan is successful, then, get ready for the “triple toll” effect!

While this alone is enough to draw well-deserved criticism from many legislators and concerned citizen, it is not the worst of it.  What has really caused an uproar is the mystery surrounding the governor’s plan. 

For while it’s no secret that the state is facing a serious financial crisis, with a current debt load of $33.7 billion and an annual expenditure of $3 billion – or 10% of the total state budget – simply to pay off the debt, what is a secret is a recent report from a taxpayer-funded study examining the impact of toll-hikes on reducing state debt. 

This week, Superior court Judge Linda Feinberg officially announced that Governor Corzine could keep secret an $800,000 study done by Steer Davies, and Gleave, Ltd., a private British consulting company.  Judge Feinberg agreed with the state Treasury Department’s conclusion that the report was incomplete and ruled that releasing it prior to completion “could lead to confusion of the public.” 

According to the Star Ledger, state officials paid $800,000 to the consultants, who “analyzed the toll-raising potential of the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway, as well as a stretch of Route 440 that connects the Turnpike and Parkway.”  A remaining $80,000 payment is being withheld “until the final work is done.”

While Governor Corzine and his administration shroud their work in veils of secrecy, the reality is that none of these plans – whether “asset monetization” or gas tax hikes – address the core problem facing our state: the fact that government spending is out of control.  Current fiscal politics and regulations have already driven quality businesses and thousands of residents across state lines.  Instead of trying to squeeze more money from New Jersey’s hardworking families that have already been pressed virtually dry by over-taxation, the state must begin to exercise fiscal restraint and responsibility. 

Otherwise, legislators will soon find that there is no one left to tax in the state.   

Archive