Feb 21, 2008 2:14 pm US/Eastern
Corzine: Cutting Debt With Tolls A Difficult Goal
PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) ―
New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine on Thursday acknowledged public and legislative opposition may make it too difficult to pay down at least half of state debt through significant highway toll increases.
"I'm not conceding that it's dead," Corzine said. "On the other hand, I'm a realist. I don't have 21 votes or 41 votes for this. I might not have any votes for this."
Bills need 21 votes to pass the Senate and 41 to pass the Assembly, but no lawmaker has endorsed Corzine's plan, with many suggesting lesser toll increases, gas tax increases, massive spending cuts and not paying off state debt with toll money.
Corzine wants to increase highway tolls to pay at least half of $32 billion in debt and fund transportation improvements.
But after speaking at a black history event at Princeton University, Corzine indicated he would accept less, though half remained his goal.
"We may not got everything I want with regard to these issues," the Democratic governor said. "But if we get a long way down that path, I think we would have made a real change, a real contribution, to both the present and the future of this state."
Corzine's has proposed increasing tolls 50 percent in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022. The increases would include inflation adjustments, and after 2022 tolls would increase every four years until 2085 to reflect inflation.
The Atlantic City Expressway, Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike would be affected.
But with legislators suggesting other ideas, a Wednesday Quinnipiac University poll determined 73 percent of voters oppose boosting tolls and 52 percent disapprove of Corzine's performance.
Corzine said he wasn't surprised.
"There's a pretty strong resistance to the toll plan," he said, adding that he welcomed other ideas.
A solution, he said, is vital. "I don't want to be the governor who stands in front of the public and says we didn't fix a bridge and therefore we just had a tragedy, which we've seen happen in other places around the
country," Corzine said, referencing August's Minnesota bridge collapse that killed 13.
But Republicans said the solution cannot include tax or toll hikes.
"Substantial and significant cuts in government spending," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., R-Union.
Republicans also questioned $4 million paid by the administration for legal work on the toll plan.
"Four-million-dollars for work we are not sure of, for a deal that's unlikely to go forward, is a complete and total waste," said Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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