Thunder in Trenton keeps rolling and your commute might be affected. For years, America's hurricane fighting, Asbury brawling, Trump lurching New Jersey Governor Chris Christie refused to raise taxes. After a few bridges failing inspections and a train fatally crashing in Hoboken, it's time to realize that New Jersey needs to rebuild its crumbling infrastructure. The compromise Republicans, Democrats, and all others in the New Jersey State Legislature came up with is a 23 cent gas tax that would generate about $2 billion a year over eight years that will go into a $32 billion project to refurbish New Jersey's crumbling infrastructure. It is to go into effect on November 1, 2016.
It's no question that bridges, tunnels, and train tracks across the state are withering, and that's a massive safety issue. The American Society of Civil Engineers release a report card grading states on their infrastructure. An "A" rating is exceptional enough that no improvements are needed until the far future. An "F" basically means this thing should be condemned, no one comes within 200 feet of it, we knock it down, and we start over from scratch. For 2016 the highest grade New Jersey gets in any of the 13 categories is a "B-" for solid waste and that's including everything that comes out of Governor Christie's mouth. New Jersey gets a "D+" in bridges but an "A" in shutdowns, "D" in dams, "D-" in levees, "C" in rail, "D+" in roads, and "D-" in transit. New Jersey's overall GPA in infrastructure is a "D+" meaning it is at risk of failing. Basically, there's a 50/50 chance that the next bridge you go over in New Jersey or the next tunnel you go under is going to completely collapse right on top of you.
Not that it makes the situation better, but the country as a whole averages about a "C-." Some states are graded as low as a "D" and as high as a "C." New Jersey is still behind New York and Pennsylvania, though with grades of "C-."
The life expectancy of most bridges is about 50 years. The average age of New Jersey bridges in use is 51. The national average is 43. If one year in bridge years is about 1.5 years in human life then driving on a 51-year-old bridge is like a 77-year-old father trying to lift his 40-year-old son above his head and hold him for thirty-seconds completely still. 38 percent of New Jersey bridges are labeled as either "Structurally Deficient,” “Scour Critical,” or “Functionally Obsolete.” In other words, "Do not drive on this death trap. Please park your car on the side of the road and swim." To fix these bridges now is already immensely expensive and the longer we wait, the more expensive it's going to get because conditions will only get worse.
The Garden State is paved more than any other. New Jersey's roads connect people to Washington D.C./Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. New Jersey's roads are used more than any state which is why in America they spend the most money on roads annually. The roads, though, are severely congested. The average New Jersey driver loses $861 annually in wasted fuel, lost time, and rest-area Starbucks because of traffic. This amounts to $5.2 billion among the state. The trend is only getting worse. By 2030, vehicle travel in New Jersey is expected to increase by 15 percent.
This is still not the big problem with New Jersey's roads. 42 percent of roads in New Jersey are deficient because of cracks and stress. The infrastructure report card says a New Jersey driver loses $1,951 annually on average for driving on deficient roadways.
It's necessary to provide more for the transportation fund to improve the state's deteriorating infrastructure. Public safety depends on it. However, raising the gas tax is not the answer. The 23 cent raise will put New Jersey from the 49th highest gas tax to sixth in the nation. It's a huge jump to fund a huge project, but the deal cuts taxes elsewhere which ultimately may hurt other programs in the process.
The first cut is lowering the sales tax from seven percent to 6.875 percent. This is more of a snip than a cut. It's like going to the barber to get a haircut and you see your friends after and no one complements your haircut because no one notices it. You keep saying you got a haircut and got a receipt to prove it, but really it was just a tiny trim and no one cares. Now you're sad and all of your friends hate you. The sales tax cut essentially means nothing. It comes out to about a 1 cent savings for every $100 you spend.
I'm sure if New Jersey's Bon Jovi babe was going to cut taxes he would do something more remarkable that could help all New Jersey residents. Governor Christie is going to phase out the estate tax by 2018, which applies to just the wealthiest percentile with an estate worth $675,000 or more. It's hard to tell how much the state will lose without the estate tax since the amount of people who die each year is not a controlled variable, but it's safe to say this costs the state hundreds of millions of dollars each year especially considering that New Jersey is the second wealthiest state in the nation in terms of average annual income.
The main takeaways of this plan are: everyone is going to pay 23 cents more for gas per gallon, the wealthiest families will save as much as $5.4 million before the federal estate tax kicks in, while the rest of the population will be able to enjoy a one cent savings for every hundred dollars they spend, which the wealthiest families will also be able to enjoy.
It's adorable that Governor Sandy-destroyer is trying to work with Democrats in the legislature to somehow increase transportation funding, all while he is doing the wealthiest New Jersey residents another huge favor. Looking forward, transportation funding is going to become a major state issue in the gubernatorial race starting next year, and trying to convince the 9 million people living in New Jersey that the 51-year-old bridge they cross over every day is perfectly fine is going to be a tough task to complete.
