Governor Should Take Responsiblity for Plan Rather than Hiding Behind Turnpike Authority
Senator Jennifer Beck, and Assembly members Declan O’Scanlon and Caroline Casagrande, this afternoon said that Governor Jon Corzine’s proposal to nearly triple tolls on the Turnpike and Garden State Parkway will hurt commuters who use those roads and further damage our state’s economy without adequately addressing the future of the Transportation Trust Fund.
“Nearly tripling tolls on our toll roads at a time when families are struggling to pay high gas prices and when we are already saddled with a struggling state economy is a recipe for disaster,” said Beck, R-Monmouth and Mercer. “Republicans in the Legislature put forward more than $1.3 billion in spending cuts, and proposed dedicating nearly half of that money toward a stable funding source for transportation projects. If Governor Corzine was willing to address wasteful spending, these toll hikes would not be necessary.”
Corzine released a proposal from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority for toll hikes on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway. The tolls would more than double in the next four years and nearly triple by the time the plan is fully implemented.
Beck, O’Scanlon and Casagrande noted that Corzine appears to be attempting to deflect any possible backlash from the plan by using the Turnpike Authority to move the plan forward. It also will make it easier to win approval than a plan that must go through the Legislature – while letting Democrat legislators off-the-hook.
“Governor Corzine didn’t get his way with his proposed toll hike in January, so now he is attempting to hide behind the curtain and use the Turnpike Authority to sneak through these toll hikes,” Casagrande said. “A proposal that will affect so many New Jersey residents, so greatly, when they can least afford it, needs to be properly vetted by the Legislature.”
“This is another example of the misplaced priorities and fiscal irresponsibility of the administration,” O’Scanlon said. “Rather than aggressively attack wasteful spending and then develop a long-term stable funding source for the Transportation Trust Fund, the Governor is choosing to hit commuters and consumers with a massive toll hike to fund just a few of his favorite projects. Once again, Governor Corzine is taking the wrong approach.”
Beck, Casagrande and O’Scanlon pledged to fight the plan with the same intensity that they did the Governor’s original toll hike plan last winter, but warned that his use of the Turnpike Authority will make stopping this proposal an even greater challenge.
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September 1, 2009
