November 1,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The nation’s second-lowest gas tax ended officially at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 1, and was replaced by one of the highest per-gallon rates in the nation , The .23 cent increase gives New Jersey now 37.5 cents-per-gallon.
While the party line from Trenton is that money will be used to refill the depleted TTF or Transportation Trust Fund providing the money New Jersey bridges and roads need for a massive investment .
A few things to keep in mind when you pay up at the pump;
The average cost of road repair in the US is $39,000 per mile but in NJ it’s $2 million a mile; New Jersey spends eight times the national average on its state-controlled highways.
The Reason Foundation says New Jersey spends just over $2 million per state-controlled mile on construction, maintenance and administration, triple the roughly $675,000 spent by the next-highest state, Massachusetts, and more than eight times the national average of $39,000. I call it “out of control” spending.
The state DOT disputes that number. But with reports the reconstruction of Route 35 were more than $27 million per mile, it’s clear our costs are out of control.
The state of New Jersey funds highway, bridge, and rail projects through its Transportation Trust Fund, which relies on borrowing and gas tax revenue to contribute $1.225 billion to the state’s overall $1.6 billion construction budget this year. Can anyone say “Ponzi Scheme” ?
Why the deficit and lack of funds? Is it because the corruption in Trenton has already used these allocated tax monies to offset other programs, loans, or deficits. Bad deals are made by politicians looking to get elected, guaranteeing political donations from unions, keeping project labor agreements and prevailing wages artificially inflating the costs of road work.
By some accounts, New Jersey spends the 3rd most of any state on transportation funding.
