By David Cruz
Correspondent
Gov. Chris Christie has been mocking Democrats about the Transportation Trust Fund for months.
“To imply that the TTF is in crisis and is suddenly and unexpectedly running out of money is just a politically-driven mischaracterization,” he said in February.
“Right now they’ve put forward nothing, except to say it’s a crisis. It’s not a crisis right now,” he added in March.
Well, with less than $100 million left in the TTF, and with the Legislature failing to pass a funding plan, the governor has unilaterally decided that, well now it’s a crisis, issuing an executive order that says a “state of emergency exists in the State of New Jersey.” The order — issued just before midnight — directs the DOT and New Jersey Transit to prepare for an immediate shutdown of work funded by the TTF. It would take effect just before midnight, Saturday.
So, what does that mean to you? The DOT and NJ Transit say they’re complying with the order but nobody is saying exactly what projects will be affected. A spokesperson for the DOT noted that their projects are funded by the TTF, but they’re also funded by the federal government and other sources, meaning it’s possible that you might not see much of a difference this holiday weekend. But the governor didn’t take this action just for show. He’s turning the screws on the state Senate, which has its own TTF bill and refused to consider the governor’s plan, hatched with Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto in the early morning Tuesday. That plan, which has a cut in the state sales tax at its center, won’t fly in the Senate. Emerging from a late meeting with the governor yesterday, Senate President Steve Sweeney admitted to being at a loss.
“The Senate is pretty firmly in a position right now; maybe it changes, maybe it doesn’t,” he sighed. “But as we speak today; you saw what we did today. We did nothing; we went home, so we’ll find out. I really don’t know what’s next. It’s kind of uncharted water for us.”
This impasse between the two houses looks a lot like the last impasse between these two houses, over an Atlantic City bailout plan. This time Sweeney is on the outs and Prieto is on the inside. The speaker says he’s ready to deal.
“But I will tell you at this point that bill is not viable because we do not have the votes for it for an override and the governor says he won’t sign it,” he told NJTV News, “so as has happened at the other times that this has happened, we need to put a bill on the governor’s desk that he can sign.”
This latest game of chicken not only puts current projects in jeopardy but threatens future project funding, too.
“I can fight for all the federal dollars in the world,” said Sen. Bob Menendez today. “But most federal dollars need a state match, and that comes from the Transportation Trust Fund, so if there’s no state match, you don’t get the overwhelming numbers of federal dollars. It’s normally a 75/25 match, so to get 75 percent of those federal dollars, you need a 25 percent match. You need a Transportation Trust Fund that is robust and fully funded.”