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New Report Plumbs Depths of New Jersey’s Transportation Crisis

A new report from the Regional Plan Association, written in cooperation with Tri-State Transportation Campaign and NJ Future, makes it clear that New Jersey’s ability to expand and maintain its transportation network is at risk. “Spiral of Debt: The Unsustainable Structure of New Jersey’s Transportation Trust Fund,” shows how the state Transportation Trust Fund, which was created in 1984 as a pay-as-you-go funding source for transportation investment, is now overburdened with debt and will go bankrupt by mid-2011. If this happens, NJDOT and NJ Transit will lose their primary source of funds for construction projects, a significant source of operating funds, and up to $1.6 billion a year in federal matching funds, crippling the state’s ability to provide even basic maintenance and repair and severely damaging New Jersey’s economic competitiveness.

Revenue for the Fund comes from dedicated portions of the gas tax, petroleum gross receipts tax, and sales tax, and amounts to nearly $900 million annually.  While the Trust Fund was envisioned as a pay-as-you-go funding stream, over the past two decades, it increasingly became a vehicle for short-term and long-term debt (MTR previously recapped much of this history). In 2006, then-Gov. Corzine continued this trend by refinancing the Fund’s debt and stretching payment on existing bonds out over additional decades. Debt payments have soared over the Trust Fund’s history, and by 2011 all of the revenue dedicated to the Fund will go towards debt:

 

Clearly, the state cannot afford to take out more unfunded debt, and cannot afford to do nothing. The report recommends that New Jersey:

  1. Transition to more pay-as-you-go financing and stop the practice of paying for maintenance with debt;
  2. Look to creatively reduce costs by internal restructurings and reprioritizing funding on certain projects;
  3. Share the burden of raising new funds among all those who benefit from healthy transportation systems, including drivers, riders, businesses and polluters; and
  4. Constitutionally dedicate any new monies to the Trust Fund and rely less on appropriations in state funding.

The full report explains where the Trust Fund’s revenue comes from, what the Fund pays for, the history of its debt, and ways that other states have cut costs and raised transportation revenue. It is available here.

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[…] New Report From RPA and TSTC Probes Dire State of New Jersey Transit (MTR) […]

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[…] New Report From RPA and TSTC Probes Dire State of New Jersey Transit (MTR) […]

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[…] the gas tax, so I guess I’m not alone.” The state’s Transportation Trust Fund is about to go bankrupt and leave New Jersey with no money for even basic transportation maintenance, because previous […]

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[…] Transportation Trust Fund, the main source of funding for state transportation projects, before it runs out of money in June of next year. […]

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[…] middle of next year, all of the revenue the Trust Fund receives from the gas tax and other sources will go to pay for debt on old projects, leaving the state with virtually no money for transportation projects.  According to Barbara, […]

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[…] the Transportation Trust Fund, which funds most of the state’s transportation projects and is about to go bankrupt. “Raiding the funds dedicated to the tunnel cannot be an option,” TSTC said in a […]

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[…] to patch up the state’s Transportation Trust Fund, which funds both transit and roads and is on pace to go bankrupt next year. That’s a sign that the delay isn’t for an audit, but, in the words of the […]

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[…] Those bridges carry nearly eight million cars and trucks daily, according to the report, “More than a Bandage for New Jersey’s Crumbling Bridges: Making the Case for a Long-Term and Sustainable TTF.” Many are in need of immediate repair or reconstruction — but the expected bankruptcy of New Jersey’s Transportation Trust Fund threatens to derail progress on improving bridges and other critical infrastructure. Beginning in July 2011, all of the gas tax and other revenue flowing into the TTF will go to service payments on decades’ worth of past borrowing. […]

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[…] tax and represents the state’s contribution to the NJDOT and NJ Transit capital programs) had been borrowed against for too long and would go bankrupt by July 2011. NJ Transit riders packed a public hearing on […]

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[…] Trust Fund, which pays for most of the state’s transportation infrastructure but is headed towards bankruptcy. This looks consistent with Christie’s earlier proposal to replenish the fund, outlined in […]

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[…] was designed to be self-financing using state gas tax revenue. But because the fund has been borrowed against so heavily, and the state gas tax has remained flat since 1988, debt payments will engulf 100% of […]

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13 years ago

[…] was designed to be self-financing using state gas tax revenue. But because the fund has been borrowed against so heavily, and the state gas tax has remained flat since 1988, debt payments will engulf 100% of the revenues […]

Alex marta
12 years ago

Hi, I’m writing like your post and I have some questions to you. Where did you find informations for your blog post? In gazettes, maybe in rags or lexicon, or only randomly on the Web? Please reply :).

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[…] So why did Governor Christie willfully deceive and beggar the citizens of his state? As Streetsblog reported at the time, it was all about New Jersey’s empty, debt-ridden transportation trust fund. New Jersey’s gas tax, the third-lowest in the country, hasn’t been raised for 23 years. The infrastructure funding woes that can be found across the country, therefore, are even more acute there. When Christie killed the ARC tunnel, the highway trust fund was expected to go bankrupt within a year. […]

perdre du poids
6 years ago

Well thought out post, dude! Thankyou so much for your work!

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