NJ-ARP Blog

Yesterday, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, suggested that the state consider increasing its gasoline tax:

…Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Middlesex County Democrat, said increasing the levy would be more responsible than Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s plan to solve state fiscal woes by issuing bonds that would be paid back with increased highway tolls.

“The only way to have a real guaranteed system is to have a guaranteed revenue source, and the motor fuels tax has proven to be that over the long haul and I think that has to be part of a solution,” Wisniewski said on Tuesday.

Wisniewski said he doesn’t know how much the tax should increase, but that doubling it would bring in enough money to fix aging bridges and roadways without borrowing money.

“I think it’s a more equitable way to fund our transportation infrastructure,” he said…

“If it was as simple as borrowing money from the turnpike tolls to pay off debt, it would have been done a long time ago,” Wisniewski said. “The fact of the matter is that it creates a solution today but creates problems down the road.”

However, state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri says that will cost too much:

But state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri said the gas tax would have to increase to as much as 58.5 cents to meet current transportation needs and provide money to improve toll roads and meet future state transportation needs.

“Those are the facts,” Kolluri said. “Those are the numbers that we ran.”

…Corzine hasn’t said how much tolls may increase, but Kolluri has suggested a 45 percent increase is needed to widen the New Jersey Turnpike and fix bridges on it and the Garden State Parkway.

Kolluri may claim he has the facts, but these numbers, as reported, don’t add-up. It seems that he’s comparing apples to oranges to kumquats in an attempt to confuse the public. The above statements by Kolluri, plus his statements from 8 weeks ago, can be summarized as follows:

• Reduce the number of structurally deficient and functionally obsolete state-owned bridges: This requires an additional $300 million per year. This would require a 6 cents/gallon gas tax increase.
• Widen the New Jersey Turnpike and fix bridges on it and the Garden State Parkway: This would require a 45% toll increase, which would bring in an additional $330 million per year.
• Meet current transportation needs and provide money to improve toll roads and meet future state transportation needs: This would require a gas tax increase of 44 cents/gallon, which would bring in an additional $2.3 Billion per year.

So what exactly are we trying to do here? Fix the state-owned bridges, widen the Turnpike and fix the toll roads’ bridges, or meet all of the state’s transportation needs forever?

Note that when Kolluri talks about a gas tax increase, all of a sudden the goal becomes a multi-billion dollar project to fund all our transportation needs forever. It seems he’s intentionally trying to confuse the public into thinking a huge gas tax increase would be required. The real fact is that gaining the same amount of revenue as a 45% toll increase requires only a 6.3 cent/gallon increase in the gas tax.

It seems that Corzine and Kolluri are hell-bent on borrowing more money instead of simply raising the gas tax a modest amount. The only reason I can think of for this is that borrowing gives a whole bunch of new money to Corzine’s banking friends, while raising the gas tax and keeping the additional revenue within state government doesn’t line anyone’s pockets.

Data sources:
New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority
New Jersey Turnpike Authority 2006 Annual Report

Posted by Bob Scheurle under Legislature & Tolls & Taxes.