Time to Audit the Transpotatioon Trust Fund (TTF)?
APRIL 28, 2015, 6:38 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2015, 7:46 AM
BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
An additional 200 state-owned bridges in New Jersey will become structurally deficient in the next five years — bringing the number of failing structures to nearly 500 and wiping away recent gains by the Transportation Department to reduce its long backlog of bridge repair projects, state officials said this week.
The bridges will be added to the list of 290 state-owned spans that already are defined as deficient, a designation that indicates one of the bridge’s three main elements — the deck, or the structural supports above and below the deck — is failing and needs repair, Transportation Department officials said. It does not necessarily indicate the span is unsafe.
“With the aging infrastructure that we have, this is a problem that’s not going to go away,” said Steve Schapiro, a spokesman for the state Transportation Department.
The decline is inevitable, Schapiro said. The bridges will slide into deficiency whether or not New Jersey voters and elected leaders find new revenue next year for the state’s transportation fund, which is nearly broke. Negotiations between lawmakers and Governor Christie to fix the fund, possibly by raising the gas tax, have ended for the year, Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox told The Record in March.
State Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, on Tuesday echoed that, telling New Jersey Chamber of Commerce members that a gas tax increase was unlikely because of political concerns.
Why should this be a concern they will fix themselves no monies needed. Politicians in NJ from our absentee governor on down have no backbone to do what needs to be done.
We could fix them if union labor didn’t charge 12x the national average to fix them. they’ve bankrupted the Transportation Fund to the tune of $17 billion net debt and now Sweeney (iron workers union) and Sarlo (on the Sanzari cosntruction payroll) want to raise gasoline taxes on everyone by 25c a gallon so they can keep stealing from us. why not find a way to cut your costs in half or more by outsourcing the work to private contractors who will do a better job anyway ? 11:50am clearly wants taxes raised; must be union.
Jamie Fox was the lobbyist in NJ for Continental when the Chairman of the Port Authority, David Samson, got special favors from the airline for approving their pet projects. Now he’s head of the bankrupt NJ Transportation fund. He’s conflicted and will have to resign. Notice a pattern here ? Taxpayers getting screwed over and over. Read this, it’s disgraceful https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-28/the-dinner-proposal-that-led-united-into-corruption-probe