New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's office has announced the $3.5 billion of road and rail projects funded by the expired Transportation Trust Fund that will grind to a halt Friday at midnight.
The action, announced by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno as acting governor, came nearly a week after Christie, who is on vacation in Italy, issued an executive order requiring an orderly shutdown of nonessential projects being paid out of the fund for at least seven days. The TTF lapsed on July 1 after lawmakers failed to reach agreement on a funding plan. The fund, which was first established in 1984, has enough cash to pay for transportation projects through early August. It was most recently authorized in 2012 at $1.6 billion annually.
The list of transportation projects slated for shutdown released by Guadagno i
Christie backed an Assembly bill that would have funded the transportation trust fund at $16 billion over eight years through a gas tax hike of 23 cents a gallon while also cutting the state sales tax by 1%.
State Senate Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, balked at the Assembly proposal's estimated $1.7 billion annual revenue loss when the sales tax cut was fully phased in. The state Senate proposed a separate $20 billion 10-year TTF bill that Christie did not support, which also would have raised the gas tax 23 cents a gallon, while also eliminating the state's estate tax and establishing income tax deductions on charitable contributions.
"This is an unfortunate situation that re-emphasizes the need for a transportation funding solution as soon as possible," said Assembly Speaker Vince Prieto, D-Secaucus, in a statement Wednesday after the TTF project shutdowns were announced. "All sides must work cooperatively toward finding a solution everyone can agree to so it becomes law sooner rather than later."
The state legislature is on recess this week, but Prieto has said he is prepared to call a session as soon as possible when a TTF deal is reached.
