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This card has been played too many times, and voters are finally getting slightly wise to it. Decry emergency situation. Demand tax increase to fix it. Divert tax money elsewhere (either to other programs, or just burn it with waste and corruption). Then cry about the emergency again.
If road infrastructure in NJ (not the US in general, not water mains) needs more maintenance (and certainly evidence is that it does), then an increase in gas tax combined with a decrease in sales tax (AT THE SAME TIME... none of this "reduce sales tax in 2 years for a gas tax increase today"; we know the sales tax decrease will likely quietly be repealed) is a good idea. But you also need to make sure that gas tax increase isn't going to be diverted to NJTransit or building sidewalks in Somerset County or hiring traffic cops or whatever. And you need to make sure it's not going to be burned paying off "Friends of Christie Do Nothing Construction Corp". Given the amount of bad will the state government has accumulated, that's a hard sell.
OK, it's called the TRANSPORTATION FUND, railroad engines are for the most part powered by diesel engines. The "gas tax" also covers diesel fuel. So "diverting money to NJ Transit", which may help reduce some automobile traffic isn't a good thing?
Also it they replace "sidewalks in Somerset County" as part of a road improvement project, that's part of the over all project.
A lot of bad will the state govt (and actually the state in general) isn't helped by entertainment shows like the Soprano's. There is no "Museum of Trucking and Industry" in Newark. There certainly aren't people sitting around outside a jobsite on a trailer working on their tans. Yet people still have this concept of union workers. All helped by media. More deals are made in boardrooms and on golf courses.
So "diverting money to NJ Transit", which may help reduce some automobile traffic isn't a good thing?
Also it they replace "sidewalks in Somerset County" as part of a road improvement project, that's part of the over all project.
You see, this is exactly why voters are appropriately skeptical of a gas tax hike based on crumbling road infrastructure. Proponents won't even consider ruling out diverting it elsewhere.
There certainly aren't people sitting around outside a jobsite on a trailer working on their tans.
Seen it for years. Just google 4 cops indicted for no show construction jobs in the last month on the Skyway. I have friends that are iron workers that have worked for 40 years on the Skyway and have drank with them while they were working OT on the Skyway. To say this doesn't happen is not true.
.......Is the solution to wait until there is a catastrophe?? Then "emergency" funds are appropriated. (more like robbed from another program). Then there will be all kinds of investigations and finger pointing, "over why this was allowed to happen". Of course the committees investigating provides jobs for the finger pointing crowds friends.
Face it, there is no solution. The voting majority of NJ'ians are used to paying up and shutting up.
Roads will get built at $2,000,0000 mile, money will end up disappearing and this will go on and on. It's in NJ's political DNA.
I live in Sussex County (R country). We don't have the juice to change the way things are done and have always been done. Never will.
We at totally at odds with other counties such as Essex, Hudson and Union counties, as examples. It's a fact of life. We're different.
It's all in the numbers and we (in Sussex and Warren (R) Counties) just don't have it.
Thank God I earn enough to where they could triple the gas tax and other than complain about the waste, I'll keep driving V8s when I want, where I want.
May 13, 2016 - NEW JERSEY; 1 day, 19 hours ago ..... State taxpayers are now on the hook for $104 million of the cost after the ... A portion of road surface from Route 35 that was torn off its .... cost per mile is 31 times more than it typically costs to build a new mile of
^^Funny, many of the contractors questioned the schedule and completion date. Is sounds more like someones ego in the NJDOT was ruffled and now we all have to pay for it.
It seems the contractors can't be blamed, it's whoever designed the bid specifications and the schedule. I wonder if they were appointed to the job?? If so, by who?
May 13, 2016 - NEW JERSEY; 1 day, 19 hours ago ..... State taxpayers are now on the hook for $104 million of the cost after the ... A portion of road surface from Route 35 that was torn off its .... cost per mile is 31 times more than it typically costs to build a new mile of
What a shocker
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There certainly aren't people sitting around outside a jobsite on a trailer working on their tans.
