Earlier today, NJ Transit Executive Director Jim Weinstein confirmed that state officials are considering defunding the Access to the Region’s Core project as a way to pay for other transportation projects. The admission came at today’s hearing of the NJ State Assembly’s Committee on Transportation, Public Works, and Independent Authorities.
NJ Transit ordered a 30-day stoppage of new work on the project earlier this month, ostensibly as a way to review costs. But the worry has been that the Christie administration is planning to cancel or delay the project as a way to bandage up the state’s Transportation Trust Fund, which funds most road and transit projects and will go bankrupt next year. At the hearing, Committee Chair John Wisniewski pressed Weinstein to confirm whether or not defunding ARC was an option. After being asked several variations on the question, Weinstein admitted that “there have been those discussions.”
The TTF is primarily funded by New Jersey’s gas tax, which at 10.5 cents/gallon is the third-lowest in the country. Gov. Christie has adamantly opposed an increase in the tax.
The hearing is still underway (as of 1:50 pm) and can be streamed online.
Doesn’t anybody in the Christie Administration understand that they should be looking at the ARC Project as a big straw that allows New Jersey to siphon off the wealth being generated in New York City!!!
The harder it is to commute to NYC via NJ Transit, the more people will simply look to live in the city and avoid the hassle all together. The only thing NJ TRANSIT and the New Jersey state tax office has going for it is the abysmal service news coming from the LIRR.
“Other transportation projects” – does that mean the Turnpike widening? They can’t do that, can they?
A smarter move would be for New Jersey to more actively entice New York and other firms to Newark, Secaucus, Jersey City and other locations and make sure that NJT or PATH make it simple to get there from New Jersey locations. Shouldn’t it be as simple to commute to Jersey City from Morristown as it is to commute to New York from Morristown?
Also the currently defined ARC is a boondoggle where a mediocre solution constrained by kowtowing to the major beneficiaries – New York State and New York City realty interests is what is being proposed.
Wow, this decision would send NJ transportation policy back to the stone age. I thought Republicans were supposed to be the ones who understood economic development and job creation…apparently not.
[…] Christie May Sacrifice ARC Transit Tunnel, Property Tax Windfall to Avoid Raising Gas Tax (MTR) […]
If Christie is planning to cancel the ARC project, New York State should go all out to get the federal and Port Authority money shifted to East Side Access, Metro North to Penn, the Second Avenue Subway up to 125th Street, even the new Tappan Zee.
Manhattan needs a labor force, but it can get that labor force on the New York side of the river. If New Jersey doesn’t value access to high-wage Manhattan jobs, let those who hold them live in NYC or move to Long Island or the Hudson Valley.
If, on the other hand, Christie is merely holding out for a better deal from contractors, New York should join him. There should not be any over-runs on construction projects. In fact, due to the collapse of construction nationwide, the price of construction should be doing down rapidly from overheated levels.
“I thought Republicans were supposed to be the ones who understood economic development and job creation”
An all too common misperception.
Chris Christie is a bloated albatross around the neck not just of NJ but of the NY metropolitan region.
[…] instead, and the fund is nearly empty because Gov. Chris Christie (and many before him) have refused to raise New Jersey’s gas taxes. At 10.5 cents per gallon, the gas is the third-lowest in the country and hasn’t been […]
The TTF funds NJDOT and NJ Transit projects, so if that’s why they cancel ARC none of that money would be used for the toll roads.
But more than $1 billion of New Jersey’s ARC funding is from the Turnpike Authority — so in theory they could use that to widen the Turnpike,.
Of course, then Christie still has the problem of how to fund the TTF. But it’s at least theoretically possible they could move some of the ARC money for the road widening, I think.
[…] acknowledged that the ARC project to build a second rail tunnel between New Jersey and New York may be sacrificed for other projects. Specifically, officials in Gov. Christie’s administration have discussed […]
3 Major points:
1)for New Jersey to leave $6 Billion of basically free money to save $2.7 Billion to be cannibalized for likely NJ Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and other road widenings is just plain stupid
2)the current plan to build a tunnel to nowhere 30 floors
beneath Macy’s instead of Penn Station and then later Grand Central needs to be changed. Going to Penn/Moynihan Station
allows easy transfers to LIRR, Subway, and Amtrak.
The argument by TSTC that Amtrak will NOT need extra capacity in the very near future is myopic.
When we go past peak oil people will be clamoring for every train we’ve got!
3)When are we going to restore full Hoboken service for access to the $2.2 Billion light rail and New JERSEY points along with Hoboken Express and PATH service to 33rd Street, one block from Penn Station?
For the 10 years building this tunnel we are going to desperately need Hoboken service which was the ONLY route for most of New Jersey for 100 years!
[…] suggested that instead, Christie look at raising the state’s gas tax, which is the third-lowest in the country and hasn’t budged for 21 years. “We’ve raised all kinds of other fees and taxes, […]
[…] 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 […]
[…] suggested that instead, Christie look at raising the state’s gas tax, which is the third-lowest in the country and hasn’t budged for 21 years. “We’ve raised all kinds of other fees and taxes, she said, […]