Wisniewski questions Kolluri’s numbers
November 29th 2007 06:13 am
As we reported yesterday, the size of the toll and gas tax increases proposed by state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri just don’t make sense. He’s talking about a large gas tax increase but is low-balling the size of the toll increase. Now Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who is chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, has pointed out the same discrepancy:
Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri said this week that the state gasoline tax would have to jump from 14.5 cents per gallon to 58.5 cents per gallon to meet future transportation expansion and maintenance needs. That is one of the central aims of the governor’s plan.
Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, said toll receipts would have to triple to raise the same amount of cash netted by such a gas tax increase — about $2.4 billion.
“Commissioner Kolluri’s assertion that it would take a 44-cent increase in the gas tax to address the state’s current and future transportation needs is revealing,” Wisniewski said. “If administration officials know the minimum amount the motor fuels tax would need to be increased, then they also must know the minimum amount tolls must increase to meet the same goals.”
The tolls will probably need to be increased even more because part of that plan involves borrowing money, and when you borrow money, you have to pay it back with interest. And that’s probably why Corzine is pushing the borrowing plan — His friends in the banking industry stand to make billions of dollars from the interest payments.
For more details on Kolluri’s numbers game, see yesterday’s post.
Joe Versaggi responded on 29 Nov 2007 at 9:04 am #
And those interest expenses will not come cheap give this state’s indebtedness and not great bonds ratings. Corzine clearly does not want to be “Florio-ized” given his hike in the sales tax (actually reverting to where Whitman had cut them from) and seems to prefer isolating the pain on just the limited number of toll highways users.
Bob Scheurle responded on 29 Nov 2007 at 10:30 am #
I wouldn’t be surprised if Corzine sets up the loan such that the payments are artifically low for several years. (Is that called a negative amortization loan?) That way, the tolls will increase “only” 45% until he leaves office, after which we’ll get socked with quadrupling of the toll rates.
Joe Versaggi responded on 29 Nov 2007 at 3:18 pm #
Sounds like a subprime or balloon mortgage with a teaser rate, I wouldn’t put it past them, nor their numerically illiterate constituency, 50% of whom would like to leave the state.