(note the last paragraph, Jen Beck is the real deal! Support her)dd
By TOM HESTER Jr. |Associated Press Writer
11:43 PM EST, January 7, 2008
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TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey's highway tolls would increase at least 50
percent every four years starting in 2010 under a plan to be unveiled
Tuesday by Gov. Jon S. Corzine to raise money to cut state debt and pay
for transportation projects, four Statehouse officials told The
Associated Press on Monday.
Tolls would increase 50 percent in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 under
Corzine's proposal that will be unveiled Tuesday during the governor's
State of the State address to the Legislature.
But the increases would also include adjustments to reflect inflation in
the years tolls weren't hiked, said the officials who requested
anonymity in order not to upstage the governor's Tuesday speech.
Tolls would increase on the Atlantic City Expressway, Garden State
Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike.
Corzine's plan is meant to combat mounting debt he said threatens the
state's future.
Corzine was unavailable for comment on Monday, but when recently talking
generally of his plan said, "I don't take this step lightly. I do so
because it is the only way, in my judgment, to dramatically change the
state's financial position."
Corzine wants to pay at least half of $32 billion in state debt, a total
that's doubled since 2000 and makes the state the nation's fourth-most
indebted state. The debt consumes about 10 percent of the state budget _
a figure Corzine said will rise in coming years, preventing the state
from investing in vital key needs unless something is done.
State bridges also need $13.6 billion in repairs and the state's
transportation fund is set to run out of money in 2011.
Corzine has acknowledged his plan may be tough to sell to lawmakers and
citizens, but insists he has little choice.
"The real risk to our collective future comes from the status quo, not
from change," he said. "Make no mistake _ I am willing to lose my job if
that's necessary to set our fiscal house in order and get New Jersey out
from the debt burden constraining our future."
Corzine wants to create a nonprofit agency that would issue bonds to
bring the state a quick, large cash infusion. The bonds would be paid
back by increased tolls.
He's also looking at other revenue sources, including possibly selling
naming rights to state properties, development rights at train stations
and properties along toll roads, leasing state-owned fiber optic
networks and increasing fees for vendors at toll road rest stops.
Sen. Raymond Lesniak said the state could also earn money by installing
windmills along toll roads.
"It's not going to be easy because change is always difficult," Lesniak
said of whether the public would accept Corzine's plan.
A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released Monday found 50 percent
of voters oppose increasing tolls, with 39 percent supporting the idea.
"The governor knows he has a sales job ahead of him," said Peter
Woolley, a political scientist and the poll director.
The Garden State Parkway has had one toll increase and the New Jersey
Turnpike four in the last 50 years. In 1989, parkway tolls increased to
35 cents per toll booth. The last turnpike toll increase was in 2003, a
17 percent hike.
The average cash-paying automobile driver pays $1.92 per turnpike trip.
Republicans remain skeptical.
"We're going to dramatically raise tolls, which is really just a tax
increase, to keep feeding the monster of state spending," said
Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth. "People are leaving the state
in droves because they can't afford to live here and we're going to make
it worse."
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