Legislation

ACTIONS taken by New Jersey CITIZENS..

Diverse Groups Detail Serious Issues with Privatizing NJ’s Toll Roads

TRENTON, NJ December 20, 2006 LINK to PRESS RELEASE: http://njpirg.org/NJ.asp?id2=29346&id3=NJ&id4=HP

NJPIRG Citizen Lobby, the Sierra Club, the IFPTE196 (Toll workers union), and Hands Across New Jersey announced a variety of concerns with privatization of any of New Jersey’s toll roads. While each group had different core concerns, several were shared. Chief among the shared concerns were the measures usually necessary to attract investors: decades of annual toll increases, and limits on building or improving roads that drivers might use to avoid paying the high tolls.

“New Jersey’s highways should be managed for the public’s interest, not private profit,” explained Abigail Field, Legislative Advocate for NJPIRG. “Decisions about where and when to build or expand our roads, and what tolls to charge, should all be made based on New Jersey’s needs, not a company’s profit margin.”

“By selling the Turnpike we’re outsourcing the government and its responsibility to protect the environment and New Jerseyans,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of New Jersey Sierra Club. “Whether it’s putting in interchanges for sprawl projects or using cheaper, environmentally damaging materials on the road, or discouraging mass transit to keep people on the toll road, it amounts to government abandoning its responsibilities.”

The groups also noted that recent deals privatizing the Indiana Toll Road and the Chicago Skyway involved very long term leases: 75 and 99 years, respectively. “99 years ago Ford introduced the Model T, and 50 years ago Congress authorized building the interstate freeway system,” noted Field. “There’s no way New Jersey can know now what its transportation needs will be 50, 75 or 99 years from now. New Jersey shouldn’t hand over its transportation management for that kind of time frame.”

Loss of public input and control was a significant concern. Limits on the ability to build or improve roads near the Turnpike would have major impacts on communities’ quality of life, but those communities would have no ability to do anything about the resulting congestion. An obvious accountability issue relates to tolls; the recent Indiana and Chicago deals allow for annual toll increases, by contract, with no accountability to voters for four or five generations.

Another common concern was: where will the money go? Selling the toll revenue, the groups noted, traded many years of a recurring revenue for immediate gain. Given the overwhelming financial pressures facing the state—promised property tax relief, a deeply troubled transportation trust fund, high debt service costs, an empty open space trust fund, high taxes, underfunded pension obligations and a looming budget deficit—how can New Jerseyans be sure that privatized highways aren’t just another budget gimmick that makes the near term financial picture sound but sacrifices our already precarious long term financial health?

John Budzash, Chairman of Hands Across New Jersey noted, " New Jersey is a Not For Profit Corporation. The state is self-insured and pays no taxes; no income, sales, real estate, corporate, or business personal property taxes, and no taxes to cover unemployment. The only way a private business could claim to run our roads better than New Jersey while paying all these taxes and making a profit, is that New Jersey’s management is incompetent. Instead of selling our assets,” Budzash continued, “Governor Corzine needs to address the mismanagement, corruption and incompetence of NJ government. Selling these roads is a scam that will make politically connected contractors more wealthy, while all New Jerseyans suffer regardless of whether they use these roads."

NJPIRG CitizenLobby is one of the state’s largest advocacy groups, working for the public interest on behalf of our 25,000 members. Our mission is to deliver persistent, results oriented public interest activism that empowers consumers, encourages a fair, sustainable economy, and fosters responsive, democratic government. We uncover threats to public health and well-being and fight to end them, using the time tested tools of investigative research, media exposés, grassroots organizing, advocacy and litigation.

For More Information: LINK: http://njpirg.org