If no news is good news, New Jersey is jumping for joy. After a year-long deluge of transportation, asset monetization, and toll road press and controversy, discussion of transportation funding and priorities has now taken a back seat in Trenton. Gov. Corzine’s “fiscal restructuring” plan to fund transportation with large toll increases has atrophied, and state legislators are focused on the governor’s fiscal year 2009 budget, which proposes the elimination of two government departments and broad cuts to other agencies.

The governor’s proposed budget does have transportation implications. On the one hand, it includes 20% cuts to NJDOT; on the other, it gives an additional $60 million to NJ Transit. It’s a mixed bag, and at this point we can’t tell where DOT will be trimming the fat. The added operations funding for NJ Transit is certainly a step in the right direction, even though it still leaves the agency $100 million short of breaking even. New Jerseyans will have to wait for budget hearings on NJDOT (scheduled for April 8 in the Assembly and April 30 in the Senate) to see where agency cuts will come from and how they will be implemented.

As mentioned earlier, Corzine’s “fiscal restructuring” plan has been necrotizing for some time now, losing the race with what appears to be a more viable alternative from Assembly Transportation Committee Chair John Wisniewski. The Assemblyman’s plan would spread the burden, combining an increase in the gas tax and a more modest increase in tolls, meaning a more geographically equal base of the population would contribute to the state’s transportation infrastructure. While Corzine has at every occasion cited the need to widen the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway (at a cost of at least $3 billion) as one rationale for his plan, it’s not clear whether Wisniewski’s plan targets funding to any specific projects.

NJDOT’s Capital Plan was supposed to be released about three weeks ago, but is not yet public. This year, the Capital Plan will cover a 10-year span, as opposed to the historical 5-year plans. This longer time-frame could be part of the delay, but more likely is that several controversial projects are vying for funding and attention. For example, the widenings of Route 17 and Rt. 206 in Byram, thought to be dormant and unfunded, may be gaining momentum. (MTR earlier covered some behind-the-scene attempts to revive the Rt. 206 widening).