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Fiscal Responsibility? NJ Will Borrow $2 Billion for Toll Roads as Rail Tunnel Stalls

Even as NJ Gov. Chris Christie’s administration debates canceling the Access to the Region’s Core rail tunnel between New Jersey and New York — supposedly for reasons of fiscal responsibility — state officials are borrowing another $2 billion to pay for widening NJ’s toll roads. The cost of the planned widenings of the NJ Turnpike (between interchanges 6 and 8A) and the Garden State Parkway (between exits 30 and 80) has grown by over a billion dollars in the last 3 years, to $3.6 billion.

The NJ Turnpike Authority board voted yesterday to borrow that amount with Build America Bonds, a type of bond that was authorized by the federal stimulus and includes federal subsidies that cover part of the interest payments. “It gives us the money we need so we can finish the widenings and not have to stop,” NJDOT Commissioner Jim Simpson, who chairs the NJTA board, told the Asbury Park Press.

NJ residents: Click here to tell state officials you support the ARC rail tunnel.

Simpson also said yesterday that, in the words of the Bergen Record, “there was never a plan” to kill the tunnel and use $1.25 billion in Turnpike toll revenue dedicated to ARC for the Transportation Trust Fund, which pays for most of the state’s road, bridge, and transit projects and will go bankrupt next year. But he suggested just such a plan later in the article:

“If for some reason we could not do ARC, because it’s a billion dollars over… one of the consequences of not doing ARC is some of that money would be freed up for other transportation projects,” he said. “It takes the pressure off funding transportation.”

Earlier this month, NJ Transit Executive Director Jim Weinstein testified at a legislative hearing that administration officials had, in fact, discussed delaying or canceling ARC as a way to replenish the Trust Fund. A 30-day moratorium on new ARC Tunnel work, reportedly to review project costs, expires in two short weeks.

But former Rutgers Voorhees Transportation Center director Martin Robins has pointed out that defunding ARC could only “take the pressure off” the Trust Fund for two years at most. Much of the state’s ARC funding is not “cash in hand” but is spread out over multiple years and can’t be used to fix NJ’s immediate budget gaps unless the state borrows against it. New Jersey would also lose $3 billion in federal funds dedicated to the project, and the Port Authority would retain control of the $3 billion it has pledged to ARC (so there would be significant limits on what the PA’s money could be used for instead).

As the Regional Plan Association wrote in a Record op-ed this weekend, that’s not nearly enough reason to kill a project that will double train service between New Jersey and New York, grow the economy of both states, increase home values in NJ, and take tens of thousands of cars off of state roads.  New Jersey residents can speak out for the threatened ARC Tunnel at tstc.org/weneedarc.

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Clark Morris
Clark Morris
13 years ago

The fact that the project is fatally flawed might be a good reason. Look at the map for it. Look at the design for the station. Is there any existing terminal station with its proposed volumes at that depth elsewhere? Parenthetically, how bright is the design for the East Side Access? Depending on a dual mode locomotive which is the first of its type in the world also doesn’t seem to be be completely sensible. While it won’t have the excessive current problems of the Long Island DM series (also of the FL9s if not the P32s), first attempts aren’t always successful.

Patton
Patton
13 years ago

Instead of building the new station in the basement of Macy’s, advocates for ARC want to connect the tunnel directly to Penn Station which is impossible because the Penn Station space cannot expand for more tracks. The Moynihan Station is another 3 billion dollar waste for this exact reason. Moynihan would be for pedestrian flow, the infrastructure of a Penn/Moynihan would not add more tracks….it would make things 1000 times worse in Midtown….and the RPA keeps on pushing these elitist pipe dreams. If the tunnel is built it can only go to Grand Central. This is called bad urban planning period…its a joke, a mishmosh of competing visions patchworked together.

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[…] Is Chris Christie a “Fiscal Hawk” or Just an Old-Fashioned Motorhead? (MTR) […]

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[…] Is Chris Christie a “Fiscal Hawk” or Just an Old-Fashioned Motorhead? (MTR) […]

da_truth
da_truth
13 years ago

How shocking that Gov Christie’s policies towards roads and rail are inconsistent. What was that powerful line of his about “building something that we can’t afford?” Hmm, I guess that only applies to rail projects.

Eric F.
Eric F.
13 years ago

This is yet another misleading article! The Turnpike Authority is borrowing against toll revenue. This has zero implications for the state budget. Borrowing against toll revenue is how the Turnpike has worked since it was first built.

Maybe ARC can be funded by borrowing against train tickets. Oh wait, it can’t because train tickets don’t turn a profit…

Red
Red
13 years ago

Eric, ARC is being funded with Turnpike toll revenue too. Couldn’t the Authority borrow against its revenue to fund ARC?

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[…] Christie can say this decision was about cost-cutting, but we’re talking about an investment that would have paid off handsomely, even with cost overruns. Really, Christie just couldn’t bite the bullet. Instead of raising the gas tax to pay for transportation, he raided funds committed to one of the most important transit projects in the nation and borrowed more to keep on expanding roads. […]

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[…] is anathema to the Tea Party-embracing GOP (though rising star Christie has been quite content to borrow and spend on highways). With Republicans poised to make major gains in Congress next month and the Obama administration […]

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[…] is anathema to the Tea Party-embracing GOP (though rising star Christie has been quite content to borrow and spend on highways). With Republicans poised to make major gains in Congress next month and the Obama administration […]

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[…] few weeks before canceling the ARC Tunnel, Christie administration officials borrowed an additional $2 billion to continue paying for the road widenings. Only time will tell what their eventual cost will […]

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[…] weeks before his final decision to cancel the ARC tunnel project, Christie’s administration borrowed $2 billion for highway widening projects, which have already incurred billions in cost overruns. It’s hard […]

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[…] has long criticized the widening of the NJ Turnpike for being  fiscally irresponsible and because the justification […]

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[…] fact, the governors — neither of whom hesitates to spend big on highways and airports — have tried to portray the rail tunnel between their two states as somehow not […]

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[…] the country, Governor Christie used the federal stimulus act’s Build America Bonds program to borrow $2 billion to widen the NJ Turnpike and Garden State […]

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