TRENTON — The Christie administration plans to borrow $1.4 billion this year to pay for transportation projects, though it has not laid out a plan to fix a funding crunch that could stop work across New Jersey. Gov. Chris Christie, who criticized his predecessor for "borrow and spend budget gimmicks" during last year’s campaign, today said he recognizes the...
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in this file photo at the Statehouse.TRENTON — The Christie administration plans to borrow $1.4 billion this year to pay for transportation projects, though it has not laid out a plan to fix a funding crunch that could stop work across New Jersey.
Gov. Chris Christie, who criticized his predecessor for "borrow and spend budget gimmicks" during last year’s campaign, today said he recognizes the depth of the problem and will come up with a long-term solution this fall.
"What it’s going to look like, I have no idea yet," he said. "I have not given it deep thought in terms of how we’re going to fix the problem and, candidly, I want to get advice from other people on how to fix it."
The state keeps borrowing money to pay for bridge, road, rail and port-related projects, while the bill for the $11.1 billion in total debt threatens to eat up all money budgeted for such projects.
This year, $850 million of the $895 million devoted to transportation projects will be spent on debt payments, according to the Transportation Trust Fund authority.
To squeeze as much money out of the bond market as possible, the administration also hopes to refinance some debt at lower interest rates. The amount borrowed or refinanced will depend on the interest rates the state can get, and the first $800 million in borrowing is planned for the fall, Treasury spokesman Andrew Pratt said.
Since 1985, New Jersey has borrowed money and paid the bills using a mix of gas taxes, tolls, truck fees and other funds. Advocates say the state needs to find a way to make transportation funding part of the state constitution, while spreading the cost among all users of the crowded landscape.
"We have a serious number of bridges in the state that are structurally deficient, some of them pretty bad," said Zoe Baldwin, a spokeswoman for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. "We have this really old infrastructure that takes a beating from all the commerce that goes through the state. So we need to make sure that everyone who uses the system is paying into the system."
Christie vowed to keep the gas tax where it has been since 1988, at 10.5 cents a gallon, one of the lowest in the nation.
One of his top Democratic adversaries, Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union), said the governor should think of the gas tax as a user fee.
Claire Heininger contributed to this report.
More coverage:
• Gov. Christie plans to refinance N.J. Transportation Trust Fund bonds to raise $800M
• N.J. Sen. Sean Kean says one-digit hike in fuel tax can fix transportation budget problem
• Poll shows N.J. remains split over gas tax, toll increase for transportation fund
• N.J. Gov. Chris Christie says he won't increase or add highway tolls
• Cash-strapped N.J. pushes off $70M routine transportation repairs onto nearly bankrupt fund