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Tolls on interstates? Higher MVC fees? A new plan wants drivers to pay, pay, pay

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Posted on September 13, 2017 at 10:30 AM

By Larry Higgs

lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com,

NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

A non-profit think tank wants New Jersey drivers to dig deeper into their pockets to help the state Department of Transportation and NJ Transit catch up on needed projects.

The organization, Fund for New Jersey, calling for putting tolls on interstate highways, leasing state toll roads to private operators and raising motor vehicle fees in a report called “Crossroads NJ” set to be released Wednesday.

The report ties a transportation system that’s in good repair to the state’s economic well being, but said the state doesn’t have enough funding to keep up with a backlog of needs, even with the 23 cent per-gallon state gas tax increase that took effect in November.

The report suggests some revenue raisers that proved to be unpopular suggestions in the past, including charging tolls to use interstate highways and privatizing the states toll roads. Leasing the toll roads to private operators to raise funds for transportation projects was proposed by Gov. Jon Corzine in 2007 and dropped when met with strong opposition.

The report also suggested raising motor vehicle license and registration fees to improve the state Motor Vehicle Commission. The MVC has been on a decades long effort to replace an aging main frame computer system, which has been blamed for long lines and wait times at agencies when it breaks down. In MVC’s fiscal year 2017 budget, it collected $489 million in revenue and sent $139 million to the state budget.

https://www.nj.com/traffic/index.ssf/2017/09/tolls_on_interstates_higher_mvc_fees_a_new_plan_wants_drivers_to_pay_pay_pay.html

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Lawyer: Corzine was ‘mastermind’ behind MF Global’s collapse

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By Matt Arco | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on March 07, 2017 at 3:58 PM

TRENTON — Former Gov. Jon Corzine was blasted as the “mastermind” behind MF Global Holdings Ltd.’s collapse inside a Manhattan federal courtroom on Tuesday, according to published reports.

A lawyer representing the accounting firm PwC in a $3 billion trial over who’s to blame in MF Global’s down fall told jurors that Corzine should be held to account.

“Its bankruptcy was caused by its risky trading, its unprofitable business and other problems” said James Cusick, a lawyer for PwC, according to Bloomberg. “Mr. Corzine was the mastermind and the driver of that strategy.”

Gov. Chris Christie unseated Corzine in the 2009 gubernatorial election. After the election, MF Global hired Corzine, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, to help engineer a turnaround of the firm’s collapse.

MF Global collapsed in 2011 after a disastrous bet on European countries’ debt.

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/03/lawyer_corzine_was_mastermind_behind_mf_globals_co.html#incart_river_index

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Reader asks so where did all that money from the pension piggy bank go if it didn’t balance budgets

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ask Jim Mac Greevey  where the pension money went ?

Reader asks so where did all that money from the pension piggy bank go if it didn’t balance budgets ?

Maybe if our Past Governors didn’t use the government employees pension systems as their personal piggy banks without repaying what they took, and if the municipalities and state actually paid in what they were suppose to there wouldn’t be a pension funding problem.Your State income taxes are about to go up even higher.

Whitman, McGreevy and Corzine played serious games with pension funds. But the health care benefits are an even bigger liability than the unfunded pension liability, $59bn vs $47bn. That’s over $100bn in unfunded promises made. Taxes may be going up, but benefits will have to be reduced, too, it’s not a one way street. Here’s a good question: We already have the second highest state and local taxes in the country vs,. one of the largest unfunded pension liabilities, so where did all that money from the pension piggy bank go if it didn’t balance budgets ?