Toll Hike BS Needs to Stop

Bloomberg's Terrence Dopp reports on NJ Tranportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri:

New Jersey would raise $3.3 billion annually for roadwork under Governor Jon Corzine's plan to reduce debt and fund transportation projects over the next 75 years, state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri said.

So, now we resort to outright lies to support Corzine's plan. I wonder how Kris does this with a straight face. Enter the doom and gloom forecast (a Corzine administration signature edition):

Without the plan, the state's Transportation Trust Fund, which finances roadwork, will run out of money by 2011 as payments on past borrowing consumes the $895 million the account gets each year from its gasoline tax, Kolluri said. The federal funds would be revoked if the state couldn't match it, he said.

``We are past the hypothetical,'' Kolluri said yesterday. ``As of 2011, nothing gets done.''

But wait, the Governor said he considered all options:

Corzine has said he expected opposition. He said raising tolls is more acceptable than alternatives such as increasing the state's sales, income or gas tax or slashing spending.

The Governor has not one time showed any stomach for spending cuts. You can't use the "slashed" word when you cannot seem to advance beyond "freeze" when it comes to spending. I think that the current administration is absolutely remarkable in their inability to have one minute amount of political courage. Even when the Governor proposes new tolls, he still doesn't have the decency to put them into effect when he is running for re-election. He spent 7 million dollars for this proposal.

If we have to pay 7 million dollars of taxpayers funds for the Governor's latest great idea, why do we have Corzine?

Read the Blomberg article here.

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