A recent report by New Jersey Policy Perspective claims that bold action must be taken to fix the transportation system in the state. NJ Policy Perspective President Gordon MacInnes told NJTV News Managing Editor Mike Schneider that the Transportation Trust Fund is broken.
“We know they’re bad because the fund is basically going to be insolvent next year,” said MacInnes. “All the money that has been dedicated in the constitution through gas taxes and sales taxes now must go to pay off bonds to cover past and current projects.”
MacInnes said that there are no funds left to take on new projects to improve rail service to New York and for the future of the state.
According to MacInnes, the problem with the transportation fund began over many years involving legislatures and governors from both parties.
“Basically people decided that they could manage through gimmicks and through increased borrowing to take care of everything and not face the reality that if you want a good road system, if you want good rail and bus service, if you want to have safe bridges, you need to spend real money,” said MacInnes. “And denying that fact has led us to a point where we are pretty close to flat out broke.”
As a solution, MacInnes is suggesting imposing a change in tax. According to MacInnes, getting away from the per gallon gas tax would make more sense.
As for where the money would come from, MacInnes said that the change would have to be enacted so that sales tax would apply to gas purchases, a broadening of the sales tax base.
MacInnes said that cars becoming more efficient may be a reason why less revenue is being raised.
With some speculating that the Port Authority could be breaking up or reforming, MacInnes says that he does not see it as it is a federal interstate corporation. According to MacInnes, the Port Authority has an important purpose — to take action that states by themselves cannot.
“So one of the great assets we have is our location and one of the defining characteristics of what makes New Jersey an attractive place is that people can live in very pleasant communities but still get to New York or Philadelphia conveniently with rail and bus service,” said MacInnes. “And it’s only through agencies like the Port Authority we’re able to take on projects like that so we don’t want to put away New Jersey’s future for the sake of short-term budget games, which is in fact how we got to the problem we’re in.”