Plan could take its toll

The governor is preparing to hit the road to sell his plan to use the state’s toll roads to restructure New Jersey’s debt, and from all accounts it looks as though he will not be facing a willing buyer.

The public in a series of polls last year expressed opposition, though admittedly it was being asked to comment well before a plan was on the table. At the time, there was still some fear that the state would sell or lease its roadways to a private company, which would have a direct impact on the roads’ management and maintenance. The plan unveiled this week does not do that. But it still is not going to be an easy sell — nor should it be.

Consider this comment in The New York Times today from a regular driver on the N.J. Turnpike:

With a sense of resignation in his voice, Ed Daly, who had stopped for a snack at the Joyce Kilmer rest area, just north of Exit 8A, said, “Tolls fall heaviest on the working man.”

Mr. Daly, the paper points out, is “a sales manager for a communications company in Clifton, who said that he traveled the turnpike every day, spending $50 a month in tolls.”

Once the first increases take effect in 2010, that would jump to $75, and he would have to absorb the difference by himself.

“Talk about a regressive tax,” he complained.

The Times story offers several other complaints from drivers that, when combined with this story in The Star-Ledger on state E-ZPass data, make it clear that Gov. Jon Corzine is getting ready to head into the belly of the beast.

Dismissing the toll plan out of hand is difficult, however, because of the severe fiscal crunch facing the state, a financial catastrophe that should be common knowledge but that appears not to be fully understood by the state’s residents. Everyone wants — and deserves — real property tax reform (the property tax is regressive), but few seem willing to pay the cost in higher state income taxes, drastic changes in the organization of local government or the kind of severe spending cuts that would be required to make it happen.

Add this to the fact that we still pay among the lost tolls and gas taxes in the country and it is clear that toll hikes should not be taboo.

That said, the governor’s plan is rather extreme — the numbers he outlined were staggering, boosting the cost of a trip from the Delaware Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Tunnel from $5.85 to $48 over the next 14 years — and regressive, especially coming from a staunch liberal Democrat.

The governor was right to demand that critics place a better alternative on the table, rather than just stating their opposition. Republicans, in particular, have been very good at offering complaints and vague suggestions — cut the budget, they say, but rarely offer suggestions as to what could be cut, knowing that once they do that they will have to deal with the wrath of those who will lose out.

That said, I think we are destined to accept at least a scaled-down version of the governor’s plan, combined with other changes. Personally, I’d propose an significant increase in the income tax, municipal consolidation, broader school-funding reform and universal health care coverage (expanding coverage to everyone in New Jersey, possibly using the model in place in Massachusetts, could lessen the costs to the state of covering not only current employees but retirees; the Massachusetts approach is not perfect, but might be our best bet until the federal government addresses health care on a national level).

At the very least, I am hoping that the drastic nature of the governor’s plan will shock taxpayers into understanding how dire the state’s fiscal condition is, making it more likely that something can be accomplished.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet