Hey, Jon, gumba, don't forget my share.
Posted on 11/15/2007 1:19:25 PM PST by Kid Shelleen
New Jersey has one of the lowest fuel taxes in the country -- and as of this year I think every penny of it is allocated to the transportation trust fund. New Jersey motorists don't -- through their fuel taxes, at least -- actually pay for all the costs associated with keeping the highways in a state of good repair.
Wonder if he'll buckle his seatbelt before he speeds in to fake concern this time?
Maybe he can raise the fine for driving without a seatbelt.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I hate that dims use the term "investing" for spending more on entitlements. I never heard the term before the Clintons ran. Smoke and mirrors. No, Governor, you are spending, spending, spending, with no fiscal restraint in sight. And people are dumb enough to be taxed to death because they buy that claptrap that they are "investing" in something. Sorry, folks, but there is no return on this "investment", except the cry for more, more, more.
Wonder how much the dems favorites ,illegal aliens, cost the state
(1)”Motor fuel taxes in New Jersey — as in most states, I believe — are used to pay for capital costs of new projects. Routine highway maintenance costs are paid out of general revenues in state, county and municipal budgets.”
I am sure different states handle this differently and usually not all roads are “maintained” by the state and not all roads receive state funding for their maintenance, with many county and municipal roads, in the building and maintenance phases, paid for with county or municipal debt (bonds), with the interest on the bonds paid out of general revenue - mostly property taxes.
(2)”New Jersey has one of the lowest fuel taxes in the country — and as of this year I think every penny of it is allocated to the transportation trust fund. New Jersey motorists don’t — through their fuel taxes, at least — actually pay for all the costs associated with keeping the highways in a state of good repair.”
Neither (1) or (2) addresses whether or not the state of the “transportation trust fund” is in any measure due to prior misuses (non-transportation costs) that capital from the trust funds has been applied to in prior years - to make up for other budget short falls. I have no facts before me to say that is the case, but knowing how strong the stench from Trenton is, it would not surprise me.
If there is an actual, legitimate shortfall in the “transportation trust fund” that is not derived from any prior misuse of that fund then correcting for it should employ two budgetary changes: (1)the excess from DMV fees, over and above the cost of running the DMV (millions) should be transferred to the “transportation trust fund” and (2)other areas should receive budget cuts to make up for that revenue transfer.
Thirdly, if the state is not collecting from those who use its state-built-and-maintained-roads what it actually costs to build and maintain them, then any rise in costs to those who use the roads should be across the board, in a state-gasoline tax increase and not in a fix that seeks to get enough revenue out of one segment of the drivers - those who take the state’s toll roads. At current gasoline prices, a penny or two in the gas tax would (a) not even be noticed as much as toll-road fair increases and (b)provides a larger and more stable spread of the demographics from which the revenue is expected.
Apparently Corzine thinks that he can squeeze enough revenue from the interstate truckers on the turnpike alone, with the turnpike commuters complaining too much.
Every time the state tries that, the truckers move from I-95 to I-295 (in south Jersey) as soon as they can, and then switch from I-295 to route 130 (just northwest of Ft. Dix/southeast of Trenton) until it junctions with Rt.1 outside of New Brunswick. Then they clog Rt. 1 until Newark Airport - skipping many miles (more than half) of the Turnpike toll. No, they all don’t do it, but many do and many more do whenever the turnpike tolls go up. So the state pushes commercial traffic off it’s major toll road and onto roads it is not collecting tolls on. We would get more revenue, and put less wear and tear on our non-interstate roads, if we lowered the turnpike tolls and raised the gasoline/fuel tax a smidgen - because the gasoline tax is paid by all drivers.
Before I would accept that, however, the entire state budget, in terms of revenue sources and revenue uses would have to be straightened out, the gimmicks and quick fixes removed, the wasteful spending stopped, local government made more accountable for its own problems, a state government hiring freeze put in place, any state civil service tenure policy ended and any expansion of any state service put on hold. We need to only prudently go forward from a base of the basics, not business as usual.
“Corzine willing to lose re-election to fix N.J.’s financial woes”
“FReeper JewishRighter Willing to Help Corzine Achieve Goal”
“They do it every year and then cry the road aren’t getting fixed and we need to raise taxes.”
No. They do it every year, then the locals campaign on the slogan that they are “keeping your taxes down” as their party friends in D.C. deliver on their campaign promise of giving you all that free money from the federal treasury;
in spite of the actual fact that not a dime that comes from the federal government did not come from you in the first place, only it costs two dollars to give you back every dollar that was taken out of your local economy and sent to D.C. But the myth of keeping taxes down and increased manna from heaven in D.C. goes on.
In fact the only thing that federal spending on local needs does is transfer power over taking care of those needs to federal politicians and ALWAYS at greater expense (not accounted for locally because that additional expense occurs in D.C.).
Au contraire. If a Hillary or any other Dem gets in, I'm sure he'll end up in a cushy cabinet position at the very least, not that he needs it. Or the country, for that matter...
Remember the last NJ gov that went on to do a miserable job in for the WH? The backstabbng RINO, whatshername?
Hey, Jon, gumba, don't forget my share.
Fred Smith for Governor ‘08
C orzine
R oadway
A ppropriation
P lan
or-crap
This from the man who caved to the State workers on the contract and their Health Insurance premiums and wanted to do the stem $460M thing; I’ll believe it when I see it. Jon is an idiot and was one before he even bought the election.
Do you know that his own company fired his sorry butt? And how does the mighty C respond? He has his limo driver pick him up and he parks in front of his office and spends the day in the office (limo) to spite his board of directors. Now that is the mind set of a troubled man. . . . Just right for NJ’s Gov.
Don’t forget the siphoning off of the highway funds for Public Transportation. Soon, they will start taking more funds for Green/Climate change that will be coming.
Not in New Jersey.
Some unique characteristics of this state are that it is: (1) small in size, and (2) located in close proximity to major cities without having any major cities itself. Because of this, the state's roadways are used by a lot of motorists from out of state who can drive all the way through the state multiple times without filling their gas tanks.
This is not an issue for autos because New Jersey's low gasoline tax makes it an attractive place for out-of-state motorists to buy fuel (this is why you have so many busy gas stations in New Jersey on major roads along the NJ-NY border). But truckers don't have the same price incentive (the state's diesel fuel tax is comparable to other states), and heavy trucks produce the most severe wear and tear -- by a wide margin -- on the state's roadways and bridges.
An ideal toll scenario for New Jersey -- though this is highly theoretical since such a thing isn't really feasible -- would be to double the tolls on the NJ Turnpike, but offer a 50% discount to anyone who doesn't travel the entire length of the roadway. That way the highest tolls are paid by motorists and truckers who are passing through without doing business in the state.
“Some unique characteristics of this state are that it is: (1) small in size, and (2) located in close proximity to major cities without having any major cities itself. Because of this, the state’s roadways are used by a lot of motorists from out of state who can drive all the way through the state multiple times without filling their gas tanks
“Can” does not equal “do”, and I could waste them noting the state-gas-tax differences (considerable) between New Jersey and its neighbors, which help explain why your can is really a “rarely happens” circumstance for most drivers who traverse the state.
For truckers heading north or south through New Jersey and wherein they have as well, or will, come from or head into New York state, they as well, when needed, will fill-up in New Jersey and avoid both sales taxes on diesel (between $0.075 and 0.08) as well as fees based on weight.
New Jersey toll roads (which, via the turnpike, cost NJ toll road drivers alone more than New Jersey takes in from all its gasoline taxes (http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/22444.html
); which suggests two things. The interstate truck traffic on the turnpike is already paying its share of “wear and tear” costs and interstate travelers are not in fact getting a bargain from the small size of New Jersey but are in fact getting taxed (tolls + gas taxes) at a higher-rate per mile driven than are New Jersey residents.
New Jersey fuel-tax revenue of $553 million (http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/legislativepub/budget/FY07_December.pdf
) reflects the sale of 3bil 813mil+ galllons of fuel. That means, at current rates of fuel sales (expected to increase), every penny increase in the gas tax will raise $38mi+ in revenue.
With gas tax differentials between New Jersey and its neighbors running between a high of 15.8 cents per gallon (NY) and 8.5 cents per gallon (Delaware). All of New Jersey’s neighbors (NY, CT, DE, MD, PA) are higher than New Jersey and between them, the median is 12.2 cents higher. If New Jersey attempted simply cut in half the median of how much lower its rate is to its neighbors (50% of 12.2, or 6.1 cents) it would still have a gas tax rate lower than all its neighbors, lower than the national average and it would raise $228mil+/year. Even if half of that went into the transportation trust fund, the other half would be more than enough, for a temporary period (10,15,20 years) to payoff bonds used to retire state debt coming due sooner. By then end of that period, inflation would likely require the transportation trust fund to have that revenue re-designated to it.
Raising tolls increases costs to a narrower demographic group, which,usually in the long run prove to be both insufficient and counter-productive.
Of course, I would prefer a governor and legislature that would make substantial enough budget cuts to avoid any tax increase. Without that happening, raising tolls on toll roads should neither be the first, next or last option. Its another budget gimmick.
Maybe that number is part of the problem. Total New Jersey Department of Transportation contracts let this year were $719 million. Some of this may include Federal matches, but probably not very much.
You need to provide some evidence to support your statement about the amount of fuel purchased by truckers driving through the state. For one thing, I hardly ever see heavy-duty trucks fueling up at New Jersey Turnpike service areas (the diesel pumps are used almost exclusively by light trucks and RVs). In addition, you simply don't have a lot of large privately-owned fuel stations (in northern New Jersey, at least) with the kind of diesel fueling capacity you see at facilities in the Midwest, across Pennsylvania, etc.
Interestingly . . . even in a Marxist state like New Jersey there is a serious concern about relying on fuel taxes as a revenue source for transportation funding. The biggest problem is that fuel tax revenues are adversely impacted when fuel efficiency improves . . . which means the state can theoretically collect less fuel tax revenue even as vehicle-miles traveled increase.
I say hike the tolls immediately even just to provide an illustration in how transportation costs affect travel patterns . . . and then let's see how things change under the higher tolls. The folks at the New Jersey Turnpike Authority are not stupid, since they had the unusual distinction back in the early 1990s of being one of the few agencies to ever REDUCE tolls (they had to rescind a toll increase for truckers because they collected less revenue under the higher tolls than they had under the lower tolls).
“You need to provide some evidence to support your statement about the amount of fuel purchased by truckers driving through the state. For one thing, I hardly ever see heavy-duty trucks fueling up at New Jersey Turnpike service areas (the diesel pumps are used almost exclusively by light trucks and RVs). In addition, you simply don’t have a lot of large privately-owned fuel stations (in northern New Jersey, at least) with the kind of diesel fueling capacity you see at facilities in the Midwest, across Pennsylvania, etc.”
One anecdotal piece. Truckers (18 wheelers) use I-295 as much as possible, when coming north from PA or Delaware. It parallels the turnpike (at varying distances) until just south of Trenton. Just west of Exit-7 of the Turnpike (almost mid-way up the state) is one of the last exits for I-295. Between that exit off I-295 and Exit-7 of the Turnpike are two large private truck stops. Many truckers take that I-295 Exit, and gas up there, before entering the Turnpike at Exit-7, and after avoiding tolls (1, and/or,2 through 6).
In addition, the PA Turnpike, heading east, ends, in New Jersey, and the NJ extension of that same roadway junctions with the Turnpike just below that same Exit-7. Many truckers coming east on the PA Turnpike, will get off at that Exit as well. They either head to that nearby truck-stop or they go north for some distance on Rt. 130, fueling-up before needing to get on the NJ Turnpike at Exit-8A (last exit b4 Rt 130 heads northeast to junction with Rt.1). Years of driving those same routes have always found them with many interstate truckers.
Second and third anecdotal evidence. When heading west on either I-78 or I-80, there are a number of private truck stops on both routes between central NJ and the Delaware river. They are known as, and used as, the last (or first) truck stops coming into or out of NJ.
“I say hike the tolls immediately even just to provide an illustration in how transportation costs affect travel patterns..”
I say the tolls are high enough and raising them will be counter productive (even more truck traffic will divert itself from the Turnpike as I have described in my other answer.
There is plenty of wiggle room in the gas tax and the tax-base for it is not as limited as the tolls. If there must be pain, better to spread it in a smaller dose over a larger body - it will be felt less, particularly with todays gas prices.
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