Tag: Turnpike

Fiscal gamesmanship

I’ll open this post by saying that I am skeptical — and this is generous — of the plan announced today by the governor to “monetize” the state’s toll roads.

Speaking at the state League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City today, he offered the plan as a way to cut the state’s debt load in half.

In a speech before the 92nd annual New Jersey League of Municipalities convention, Corzine said he would reduce the state’s bonded debt by at least 50 percent, largely through toll increases. He would not say how much tolls would be going up, nor offer a range.

Corzine promised to unveil details of the plan in January, including any proposed toll hikes. He stressed he would not sell the New Jersey Turnpike or the Garden State Parkway, but try to form a nonprofit agency to manage the toll roads and raise money through bonding to pay down the debt.

“Every dollar that goes to debt service or unfunded liabilities is a dollar that can’t go to municipal aid or school funding,” Corzine said to several hundred local, county and state officials who attended the luncheon. “It’s all connected.”

There is something to be said for doing something drastic to reduce the state’s $32 billion debt, which as Juan Melli at Blue Jersey points out “could save about $1.5 billion in yearly interest payments which would help close our over $3 billion structural deficit.”

There is truth in this. The question is whether the method being floated is anything more than another in a long line of gimmicks.

I remain skeptical.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Silly season takes to the road

We are in the midst of a silly stretch as regards the governor’s so-called “monetization plan.” The plan, which would sell, lease or in some other way turn assets like the N.J. Turnpike or the state lottery into instant cash for use to pay down debt (primarily) has little support around the state, including in the state Legislature.

But a questionable inclusion in the state budget granting the governor money to study the plan (and the likelihood that the governor will not be presenting a plan until after the November elections) is drawing fire.

We received a press release the other day from Republican candidates for the state Assembly, Adam Bushman of Jamesburg and Tom Goodwin of Hamilton. (They have been very aggressive in sending out releases, more aggressive than their opponents.) Here is the text of the release:

State Assembly Candidates Tom Goodwin and Adam Bushman today criticized Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein for voting down an amendment that would have stricken a line item from the state budget during Thursday’s budget debate, authorizing the sale of state assets including the New Jersey Turnpike.

Goodwin described the move as being detached from New Jersey voters.

“This vote exposes how out-of-touch Assemblywoman Greenstein is with the families of the 14th District,” asserted Goodwin. “As I knock on doors, I continue to hear the same message: voters oppose selling the New Jersey Turnpike because it will lead to more toll increases. Ms. Greenstein should have followed the lead of Assemblyman Baroni in voting to strike from the state budget the provisions to sell public assets.”

During Thursday’s budget debate, Assemblywoman Greenstein voted against removing a budget provision allowing unlimited funding for “legal and engineering fees, financial advisers and other consultants and services associated with, as well as any other costs determined necessary in preparation for, the monetization, sale or lease of public assets.” (Section 75, FY2008)

Bushman called the vote “fiscally irresponsible.”

“Assemblywoman Greenstein’s vote to allow the sale of the Turnpike is bad for New Jersey,” said Bushman. “This is an election year ploy that gives the administration a blank check to sell off state assets while hiding the details of the deal from the voters until after Election Day. It is fiscally irresponsible to sell off our state assets and disconnected from the families of the 14th District.”

The budget line, as I said, did not authorize the sale, but only the study. But that matters little at election time. On the flip side, we have the Democrats’ release, issued today:

Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein and Assembly candidate Wayne DeAngelo today declared their unalterable opposition to any plan that would authorize New Jersey toll roads to be sold or leased to any private or foreign entity.

“Any plan that proposes giving control of New Jersey’s toll roads to a private profit-seeking firm is an absolute non-starter,” said Greenstein (D-Plainsboro). “Over the past 50 years, New Jersey built these roadways for the public’s use and with public’s money; they must remain in public hands.”

Greenstein and DeAngelo said they would vote against any plan that potentially could place the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, or Atlantic City Expressway under private or foreign ownership – either before or after Election Day.

DeAngelo said continuing public control over the highways is the only way to protect against unchecked toll hikes.

“Handing over our state’s vital infrastructure to any company whose primary concern is their stockholders is an open invitation to higher costs for commuters,” said DeAngelo (D-Hamilton). “Our highways should be operated with the interests of New Jersey’s motorists, not global corporate interests, as the paramount concern.”

OK. So the Democrats are opposed, as well. Then why not vote down the amendment? Simply, it was an election-year ploy on the part of Republicans, as most of this debate has been.

No one, aside from the governor, seems to think this is a good idea. But it certainly makes for good political theater.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The Cranbury Press Blog

E-mail me by clicking here

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Not dead yet

The dreaded monetization plan is on hold, but not dead. (See this, as well.)

Gov. Jon Corzine’s grand plan to solve the state’s lingering financial crisis by selling the Turnpike and other toll roads to a public corporation has been put on hold until after the November election.

Corzine is concerned that introducing a controversial and complicated “asset monetization” plan in the weeks before a legislative election might foul the political waters for Democratic candidates and jeopardize passage of the plan by the Legislature, administration officials said.

I think this is one of those cases in which the reason it will be difficult to sell is that is it not a sellable idea.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The Cranbury Press Blog

E-mail me by clicking here

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

If we lease, we must keep from getting fleeced

NJPIRG is trying to lend some sanity to the debate over the governor’s “monetization” plan by circulating a petition asking that the governor abide by six basic principles to prevent the kind of bad deals agreed to elsewhere. The group, on its Web site, offers this explanation:

We need to ensure that New Jersey citizens retain control of our Turnpike and Parkway for all future planning, management and development. We need to make sure that if a deal occurs, New Jerseyans get fair value for our roads instead of our budget crisis leading New Jersey to sell at a discount. The process of making a deal must be transparent and accountable. And above all, the people of New Jersey should have the final say in the Turnpike’s future safety standards. If a monetization deal can’t meet these conditions, embodied in our six principles, a deal must not be done.

I remain skeptical that a monetization plan can work, but if the state ultimately does move ahead, the PIRG petition offers a useful outline of the kinds of safeguards needed to keep New Jersey residents and drivers from being fleeced.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The Cranbury Press Blog

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.