Moments ago, incoming Governor Chris Christie announced that Jim Simpson is his nominee to head the NJ Department of Transportation and Jim Weinstein will lead NJ Transit. Both come to their positions with plenty of transportation experience.
New NJDOT nominee Jim Simpson was head of the Federal Transit Administration between 2006 and 2008, where he supported the ARC Tunnel. He served for 10 years as a board member of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority as a member of the Finance, NYC Transit, and Governance Committees. Taking the reins at NJ Transit will be Jim Weinstein, a former NJDOT commissioner under Gov. Whitman and most recently a senior vice president at AECOM.
Despite Simpson’s support for then-Gov. Corzine’s 2008 “asset monetization” plan to fund transportation, Governor Christie reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to finding a transportation funding solution that does not involve raising new revenue. PolitickerNJ quoted the incoming Governor as saying, “I’ve had extensive conversations with Jim Simpson and Jim Weinstein about the Transportation Trust Fund situation, and again, we’re not going to be raising the gas tax,” he said. “Their charge is to figure out how we’re going to fix this without raising the gas tax.” That may prove difficult.
Good luck indeed. Always looking for something but not willing to pay for it.
[…] ominous month for New Jersey’s transit riders. At the press conference where he announced his picks to lead the state’s transportation agencies, Gov. Christie reiterated his opposition to a gas tax increase, saying that ”the people of […]