|
|
[ back ]
Corzine takes toll road to BCA
(by Mark J. Bonamo - January 16, 2008)
Gov. Jon S. Corzine strode on to the stage at Bergen County Academies in Hackensack Monday night dressed in the same type of blue pinstriped suit he wore everyday in his pre-political life as co-chairman of Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs. Corzine came to use his experience in the world of finance to explain his plan to dramatically raise tolls on state roads to bolster New Jersey’s shaky finances.
And he meant business.
“This is more than just a toll road effort,” Corzine said before a crowd of more than 800 people. The assembly was Corzine’s Bergen County stop of a town hall meeting tour scheduled for all 21 New Jersey counties.
“It is about restructuring the finances of the state.”
Details of a plan designed for debt reduction
Corzine began the public meeting with a 45-minute outline of the state’s current financial morass. The presentation included a summary of the complex proposal to raise tolls as part of a comprehensive overhaul of New Jersey’s finances that the governor introduced during last week’s State of the State address in Trenton.
The plan seeks to raise up to $40 billion by hiking tolls 50 percent every four years over 15 years, then borrow against the generated revenue to pay down nearly $16 billion in state debt, thus eliminating about half of the present total debt. The expected revenue would also be used to fund needed infrastructure projects, including a $300 million plan to widen Route 17, as well as stabilize the state Transportation Trust Fund.
The governor also wants to create a non-profit corporation, tentatively entitled the “public benefit corporation” that would operate the state’s three toll roads: the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway. The corporation would then borrow $32 billion to $38 billion from private investors through public bonds.
To repay this amount, tolls would be increased 50 percent every four years starting in 2010 and ending in 2022; only smaller cost of inflation increases would occur thereafter. Corzine has also called for a freeze on state spending, as well as new regulations that make it more difficult for state government to borrow funds in the future.
The governor is hoping that the state legislature will approve his toll-road plan by March so it can be folded into the fiscal 2009 budget. In comments after the public forum, the governor said that the bill for the proposal would be ready in the next few days.
Residents question the devil is in the details
Stripped down to his signature sweater vest, Corzine then took questions about the plan from two lines of people standing 50 deep for over an hour. The tone of the questioning was respectful, yet reservations about the plan were clearly evident. Queries from the crowd addressed other alternatives, such as increasing the state’s 14.5-cents-per-gallon gas tax, reducing state spending or setting up a ballot referendum on the toll-road plan in November. One questioner went so far as to ask if the 2010 toll increases were scheduled to ensure that they wouldn’t cast a pall on a potential 2009 Corzine re-election campaign.
“If I were really, really seriously concerned about re-election, I wouldn’t be proposing this program,” Corzine replied.
Vincent Furio, 33, of Hackensack expressed his own skepticism when he asked the governor several questions about the plan, pressing him repeatedly for details about how it would work. A New York bond trader who works in the same financial arena in which Corzine enjoyed success, Furio was politely passed over by the moderator when he attempted to ask a third question. In the parking lot outside on a dank and drizzly night, Furio said what he meant to say to Corzine.
“I appreciate that he’s taking fiscal responsibility, but there’s a lot of questions that have yet to be answered about this,” said the Clinton Place resident. “When are the details of the plan coming out? What is the next alternative if this plan doesn’t get approval? If the bonds are not tax-free, they are not going to sell. Then the price creeps down, and what was a $38 billion bond issue could become an $8 billion bond issue. That’s the bottom line. He’s not talking about that.”
A rough road, but staying in gear
Corzine came to Hackensack knowing that his toll increase plan would not be an easy sell. In a poll published by The Record on Jan. 14, 52 percent of 600 likely voters said that they disapproved of the plan. At a reporter briefing following the Bergen County town hall meeting, the governor seemed prepared for ongoing dialogue about the plan.
“I think people are curious,” he said. “I think people are willing to recognize that we have a problem, and are willing to accept a solution. I think they are more open-minded than not.”
At the end of his opening comments to the crowd, Corzine seemed ready to keep his banker’s suit on as he continues his statewide tour, promoting his way to the end of the road for New Jersey’s troubled finances.
“I’m open to alternatives,” he said. “We think that this is the best of the unattractive options that actually solve the problems we have. So that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.”
[ back ]
|
|
|
