file photo by Boyd Loving
Raising N.J. gas tax can have financial and political drawbacks
NOVEMBER 17, 2014, 10:45 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014, 11:06 PM
BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORDGEORGE MCNISH/SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
Editors Note : the real questions remains ,what have they been doing with all the money the last 15 years ?
A Delta gas station on Main Avenue in Passaic advertising regular gasoline this week for $2.55 a gallon. New Jersey’s gas prices are much lower than neighboring states because of its low gas tax.
Even as gas prices nationwide continue to drop, hitting the lowest average tabs Americans have seen since 2010 — New Jersey continues to maintain its advantage. Average prices here hovered around $2.76 a gallon last week, 17 cents lower than the national average and more than 50 cents cheaper than New York’s.
The biggest reason for New Jersey’s resilient price advantage: The motor fuels tax, which at 10.5 cents a gallon, is the nation’s second lowest. The closest nearby price competitor is Delaware, where the gas tax is more than double at 23 cents. New Jersey’s other neighbors — Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York — charge gas taxes that are four or five times higher.
But pressure on New Jersey’s Transportation Trust Fund, which gets a large portion of its money from the gas tax to fund road repairs, has been growing for years. It reached a crescendo under Governor Christie, who took office to find that virtually no capital was available to fund road projects. Instead, the bulk of the money in the trust fund goes to pay debt, not fix roads.
Christie has relied on a number of tactics to find the cash needed to keep construction vehicles working on New Jersey highways — and avoid raising the tax.
Tolls have been raised on the New Jersey Turnpike, and the money has been used to fund projects throughout the state. For instance, toll increases on the turnpike have been used to pay for road projects and to prop up NJ Transit.
And a train tunnel project under the Hudson River was canceled and part of its funding — $1.8 billion — redirected
Christie has relied on a number of tactics to find the cash needed to keep construction vehicles working on New Jersey highways — and avoid raising the tax.
from the Port Authority to rebuild the Pulaski Skyway and complete several other projects. The federal Securities and Exchange Commission and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office began probing the deal after a report in The Record showed that Port Authority officials were concerned that providing the funding to New Jersey was outside the agency’s mandated mission. The probes are ongoing.
Those moves were one-time gambits that don’t provide a stable source of funding, and the money they generated is slated to run out by the end of 2016.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/raising-n-j-gas-tax-can-have-financial-and-political-drawbacks-1.1135869
Raise the tax five cents people will get over it and Christie is not running for anything anyway.
Yes, dear.
Allow non-union qualified bidders to build the roads.
You will get 2 miles done for what it costs now with the union requirement.
Problem solved.
Get some of Barry’s illegals to build the road for $1 an hour. We will sure have enough here when he gives them amnesty.
Good idea. I’ll take it a step further.
Arrest them, and use ‘chain gangs’ to build the roads with free labor.
When the road is finished, deport them.
2 problems solved!
What country did your family come from #14? Bigots like you are mostly 1st gen immigrants
Legals and illegals big difference
Deporting you back to your hole #5 would also solve two problems
I thought cheap gas was one of the economic benefits of living in NJ? There aren’t many others as we get taxed to death already everywhere else to pay for all of the excessive public sector entitlements promised away.
We all know that the transportation fund is a black hole of graft an corruption. Why else do the unions want it fully funded? Also gotta love how Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo sees no alternative other than raising the gas tax, but then in the next breath he proposes lowering or doing away with taxes on pension benefits!!! How are the two related you ask? Good question, but probably too difficult for our union hacks to answer because they love riding this gravy train.
Not sure my grandparents are legal then, they didn’t even have passports when they arrived from Italy. Does that make me illegal in your books?
Maybe you should crawl back under your rock a-hole.
Now go back to your union hiring hall loser.