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.