NJ transportation fund or NJ transportation Slush fund
Readers Demand A Full Accounting of the NJ transportation fund before any New Revenue Sources are Sought
“The Federal Highway Administration tracks all revenues collected by states for use on transportation. The two main sources are the gas tax and tolls. NJ gasoline taxes are low, but the state’s toll collections rank second in the nation behind only the much larger New York. The result is that NJ actually has, according to the Feds, the eighth highest annual revenues to devote to roads and bridges of any state. And yet the NJ Transportation Fund is bust? Why you ask? According to a 2013 study by the Reason Foundation, NJ spends 8.4 TIMES the national average for every mile of road it maintains or builds… it’s not because of the low gas tax, it’s because of inflated union wage rates to build & maintain roads at 8X the national average.
Reader says , 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.
No kidding, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo is strongly in favor of raising gasoline taxes, but he also wants to do away with taxes on pension benefits. Wonder whose pocket he’s in ?
https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/11/potential_nj_gas_tax_increase_comes_up_against_christie_2016_prospects.html
He is sometimes referred to as “Senator Sanzari’ since his employer (Sanzari) benefits as a major road builder if the gas taxes are raised..and actually spent on road projects instead of just going into the general fund.
N.J. transportation chief orders immediate review of state’s bridges
JANUARY 20, 2015, 4:39 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2015, 11:09 PM
BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
The fight over New Jersey’s nearly-broke transportation fund ratcheted up two notches Tuesday when Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox called for immediate safety inspections on every bridge in the state and local officials were warned not to count on $200 million in state transportation aid this year.
If the transportation fund is empty on July 1, that could throw into limbo an additional $100 million in matching federal aid for towns, endanger scores of road and bridge projects, and cause fiscal headaches for local officials. It also might increase pressure on the Legislature and Governor Christie to fix the transportation fund quickly, some politicians said.
Fox’s inspection order came hours after the collapse of an interstate bridge in Cincinnati, and after the department closed a smaller bridge in New Jersey that engineers discovered was unsafe.
“I’ve ordered an expedited review of all our bridges, state and local,” Fox said. “I’d rather be safe than sorry, so we know definitively whether we have any unsafe bridges.”
Fox’s move illustrates how depleted the transportation fund has become. Officially called the Transportation Trust Fund, it raises $1.2 billion a year, mostly from highway tolls and motor fuels taxes. After years of state borrowing against the fund’s revenues, however, nearly all of the money raised goes to paying the fund’s $18.2-billion debt, and little remains for repair or construction work.
The so called trust fund just like the deeply in debt pension fund is used by politicians for whatever they want including our present governor. Maybe these idiots in Trenton should pass a law that these monies only be used as intended.