By Briana Vannozzi
Correspondent
“We’re going to have to raise a tax, because it can’t get done any other way,” said Assemblyman John Wisniewski.
With that, Chairman Wisniewski conceded the funding options to restore the Transportation Trust Fund are bleak. And said either way, difficult decisions need to be made.
“There are a lot of people who are very concerned about what the legislature may do, with regard to a motor fuels tax, and I understand that. But we also have a big problem in the state,” he said.
His recently proposed bill would raise taxes on petroleum products, in turn raising the gas tax by about 25 cents a gallon. The cost to New Jersey motorists averages at about 80 cents a day or just under $300 a year. Wisniewski says it’ll raise an additional $1.25 billion a year for the fund.
“There has to be constitutional dedications to make sure whatever money is raised is dedicated for the capital needs of our transportation infrastructure, but on top of that there has to be constitutional protections to make sure the money is not overspent,” Wisniewski said.
His committee heard from various representatives with high stakes in the state’s transportation infrastructure.
“Here’s my fear, is that the state doesn’t get their money and the state doesn’t get their money because it becomes way too easy for fraud,” said New Jersey Gasoline C-Store Automotive Association (NJGCA) Executive Director Sal Risalvato.
Risalvato represents over 1,500 New Jersey gasoline retailers. He’s been in the business since the first and last time the gas tax was raised back in the late 1980s. When discussing a straight gasoline tax, in which retailers would collect the money, he said it’s not his members he’s worried about, but the people out there who will try to cheat the system.
“If they cheat the state, that’s your concern. But if they cheat the competitor across the street because they have not remitted what they’re supposed to remit, now that’s my concern because they’re cheating my members,” Risalvato said.
The fund is set to run dry by next year, when about $1.6 billion will be spent. All current revenue, including a shot of money from the Port Authority is going toward paying off debt service only.
“We really do have to look at big options and that’s the gas tax right now because a it impacts all users of the roadways and because we get to collect about a third of those dollars from out-of-state drivers,” said AAA Regional Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations Cathleen Lewis.
AAA says it will publicly endorse raising the gas tax, though won’t say which particular version they back, only that it seems to be the inevitable.
“It hurts gas payers that they’re gonna have to pay a little bit more, but at the end of the day it saves them money,” Lewis said.
But none of it will happen if the legislature can’t come together to pass a bipartisan bill and, more importantly, get Gov. Chris Christie to sign it. But Chairman Wisniewski notes doing nothing is not an option.