Move New Jersey Forward http://www.movenjforward.org Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:01:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 10/18/10 – Readers prefer gas-tax hike over more borrowing – NJBiz http://www.movenjforward.org/2010/10/101810-readers-prefer-gas-tax-hike-over-more-borrowing-njbiz/ http://www.movenjforward.org/2010/10/101810-readers-prefer-gas-tax-hike-over-more-borrowing-njbiz/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:10:43 +0000 Zoe Baldwin http://www.movenjforward.org/?p=291 [...]]]> 10/18/10

Readers prefer gas-tax hike over more borrowing

NJBIZ Poll Results
Monday, October 18, 2010 12:00 AM
By NJBIZ Staff

Summer Olstad
Nearly half of responders to the most recent reader poll support raising the gas tax as a means to repair the long-suffering Transportation Trust Fund, with less than 3 percent supporting legislative borrowing as the remedy for the fund that’s used to pay for road and rail projects.
“Five cents more on all the fuel purchased can add up to a lot of finished roads,” wrote reader Kathy Janton. “But it has to be for funding roads that we drive on, tunnels we drive through, bridges we drive over — not higher salaries, more benefits or pensions.”

Reader Meg Fitch, meanwhile, said the TTF crisis “should have been handled years ago. Our elected officials need to stop thinking about themselves and their next elections. They need to think about what’s right.”

Reader Howard Maltz took cast a critical eye on Trenton. “Our legislators have got to stop raiding the Transportation Department’s piggy bank to plug the holes in the budget,” he wrote. “It has gone on for too long, and now the roadways and the infrastructure is paying the price.

But there was plenty of vitriol for any tax hike. Stephanie Shaffery, of 20 Twenty Graphics, wrote, “Trenton needs to stop spending money, and come up with a plan that allocates proper funding to worthwhile programs and spending. If transportation funding is considered worthwhile, then fund it without charging the taxpayers another dime.”

NEXT WEEK: Will the trans-Hudson tunnel be built?

]]> http://www.movenjforward.org/2010/10/101810-readers-prefer-gas-tax-hike-over-more-borrowing-njbiz/feed/ 1130 10/13/10 – N.J. to introduce $1B in bonds to support transportation trust fund http://www.movenjforward.org/2010/10/1013-n-j-to-introduce-1b-in-bonds-to-support-transportation-trust-fund/ http://www.movenjforward.org/2010/10/1013-n-j-to-introduce-1b-in-bonds-to-support-transportation-trust-fund/#comments Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:57:27 +0000 Zoe Baldwin http://www.movenjforward.org/?p=297 [...]]]> N.J. to introduce $1B in bonds to support transportation trust fund
Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 7:36 PM

Bloomberg News

New Jersey will bring as much as $1 billion in Build America Bonds to market tomorrow after increasing the proposed sale size following a successful refunding transaction today, the state Treasury Department said.

The Transportation Trust Fund Authority bonds, maturing in December 2028 and rated Aa3, or fourth highest, by Moody’s Investors Service, were priced to yield 225 basis points above 30-year Treasuries, according to information from the senior manager Barclays Plc of London. The state had planned to sell $929 million, according to preliminary sale documents.

Texas Transportation Commission Build Americas, with Moody’s top Aaa rating and maturing in April 2033, priced to yield 90 basis points above 30-year Treasuries Sept. 22, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. A basis point is the equivalent of 0.01 percentage point.

New Jersey’s issuance comes a week after Governor Chris Christie canceled an $8.7 billion trans-Hudson rail tunnel and Transportation Commissioner James Simpson suspended 100 trust fund projects for lack of funding.

Proceeds from tomorrow’s sale will finance highway and mass-transit work in the U.S.’s most densely populated state through February or March 2011, state Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said at a legislative hearing on the bond deal Oct. 4.

General Fund

About $393 million of the proceeds will repay New Jersey for advances from its general fund that covered the transportation program’s $125 million in monthly expenses, according to Sidamon-Eristoff. About $25 million more will be used to meet the state’s share of interest payments on the bonds through June 15, 2011, according to the bond documents.

The issuance amount was raised after lower-than-expected interest rates prompted the state to increase today’s refunding by $34 million, to a total of $500 million, William Quinn, a Treasury spokesman, said in an e-mail.

The refinancing bonds, maturing through December 2024, sold at a true interest cost of 3.76 percent, and saved the state about $30 million, Quinn said.

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/10/nj_to_introduce_1b_in_bonds_to.html

]]> http://www.movenjforward.org/2010/10/1013-n-j-to-introduce-1b-in-bonds-to-support-transportation-trust-fund/feed/ 1182 10/13/10 – EDITORIAL: Gas tanks hold promise of cash for road repairs http://www.movenjforward.org/2010/10/1013-editorial-gas-tanks-hold-promise-of-cash-for-road-repairs/ http://www.movenjforward.org/2010/10/1013-editorial-gas-tanks-hold-promise-of-cash-for-road-repairs/#comments Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:55:00 +0000 Zoe Baldwin http://www.movenjforward.org/?p=295 [...]]]> centraljersey.com

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 6:14 PM EDT

If it’s broke, fix it.

As we wrote last week, the state’s infrastructure is in bad shape. Our bridges, tunnels, rails and roads aging and unable to support the traffic we are forcing them to carry. They are in need of major upgrades and, in some cases, replacement.

The problem is that the state is broke, making it difficult for the state to fix anything. And the only way to fix the problem is to find new revenue. In plain English, that means raising the state’s gasoline tax and possibly extending the sales tax to gasoline purchases.

Make no mistake. We have hit the crisis point. The state suspended state-funded construction projects for several hours last week, before the state Legislature approved the borrowing of $1.25 billion to cover road projects through March. And Gov. Chris Christie killed the trans-Hudson tunnel — known as the Access to the Region’s Core — planning to use the tunnel money for other infrastructure projects.

We have endorsed a delay on the tunnel, but the governor’s action — which he reversed after a meeting with federal officials —was short-sighted.

But it is of a piece with the ostrich-like approach taken by the Legislature for quite some time. Legislators of both parties have refused to ask taxpayers to pony up cash to fix potholes, widen roads, reinforce bridges and tunnels and do all of the other work needed to bring the state’s infrastructure up to 21st-century standards.

”Despite the need for serious repairs to the state’s aging system of roads and bridges, as well as the dire condition of its aging and over-burdened transit system,” New Jersey Policy Perspective wrote in an e-mail blast on Monday, “New Jersey has neglected to fully fund its transportation needs.”

NJPP, a liberal think-tank focusing on New Jersey issues, said the state needs to look at its gas and sales taxes for more transportation money.

The state’s gas tax stands at 14.5 cents per gallon, third lowest in the nation and about 15 cents below the national average. Raising the tax to the national average would generate about $750 million annually that would be set aside for transportation projects —and cost drivers of cars that get 20 miles per gallon about $90 to $100 a year.

”Revenue generated from increasing the gas tax to a fair and reasonable level would provide a permanent funding source for the state’s soon-to-be-depleted Transportation Trust Fund,” NJPP said.

The state also could extend the state sales tax to gasoline — which would cost drivers about the same as the added gas tax and generate the same $750 million a year (depending on the price of gasoline).

The gas tax hike appears the most logical approach because the money would be generated from the people who create the wear and tear on our roads and bridges while the revenue would be dedicated to transportation projects.

The governor, of course, has promised to veto any tax hike, leaving the gas tax dead on arrival — and leaving our infrastructure to decay even farther.

http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2010/10/13/opinions/doc4cb62c524eed0662020843.txt
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