Toll scheme could hurt transit
November 26th 2007 05:34 am
The Courier News has a two-part article on Governor Corzine’s super-secret asset monetization plan, which has cost taxpayers $4.8 million so far. Part one of the article points out how the contract could prohibit new rail service from being started:
Experts also agreed that the state has to spell out everything it wants to control and conditions it doesn’t want in any contract.
“There are interests the government needs to protect, such as (against) non-competition clauses,” Sundeen said…
“The state has to make sure the private entity doesn’t have an agreement infringing on the ability to improve roads or mass transit.”
For example, the MOM rail line is likely to attract people who currently drive on the Parkway and Turnpike. If the State isn’t careful, it could end up with a contract that would prohibit NJ Transit from starting MOM service.
Am I being alarmist? Perhaps. But you never know what can end up in a contract once the lobbyists start spreading their money around.
(Part two of the article incorrectly states that a 20 cent increase in the state’s gasoline tax will result in NJ having the highest state gas taxes in the nation. In fact, NJ’s gas tax, currently 3rd lowest in the nation, would only be the 7th highest, and still lower than New York’s and Connecticut’s.)
finsuburbia responded on 09 Dec 2007 at 10:53 pm #
Come on, this is just red herring. All that Corzine has said for a while is that it is not going to involve the sale of the roads to a private company. He has said that it will be some sort of public-benefit corporation owned by the state. I seriously doubt that the state would own a company that forbids the state from making transit investments. On the contrary, *if* the money helps fix up the TTF’s finances, then it will most likely help transit, not hurt it.