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WERE ON A ROAD TO NOWHERE
Turnpike Lease Scheme to Impose 75 Years of Toll Increases Finally Revealed

Senator Henry P. McNamara (R-Bergen/Passaic/Essex), who serves on the Senate Transportation Committee, reacted to the unveiling of a plan by Governor Corzine to lease the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway to foreign interests, thereby ensuring 75 years of constant toll increases.

Senator Henry P. McNamara (R-Bergen/Passaic/Essex), who serves on the Senate Transportation Committee, reacted to the unveiling of a plan by Governor Corzine to lease the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway to foreign interests, thereby ensuring 75 years of constant toll increases.

The first sign of a business in trouble is the disposing of it's most valuable assets to meet prior financial obligations. This proposal to lease the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway is an admission by the Trenton politicians that they have dug the state in to a financial hole so large that they must lease a major asset to keep afloat.

The Turnpike and the Parkway are irreplaceable assets fully owned and paid for over the last 60 years by the citizens of this state. Infrastructure that is vital to the continued economic vitality of the entire mid-Atlantic region. It is preposterous to claim that disposing of this valuable asset for a one-shot financial windfall is the cure-all for a state that has been mismanaged over the past five years.

New Jersey residents are struggling to get by in a State where property taxes are soaring to historic levels, billions in new State taxes have been imposed, and jobs are fleeing to other states due to the second worst business climate in the nation. Now, the Trenton Democrats want to add to this burden by imposing annual toll increases for generations to come.

The Legislature should be working to make New Jersey more affordable for taxpayers; instead we are confronted with a plan to make the daily commute more expensive for thousands of motorists. The Democrats plan will also raise the cost for delivering goods and services, hurting New Jersey businesses that already are combating the most unfavorable tax and regulatory climate in the region.

It is time to face reality and address the spending side of the equation. We must reject another short-term fix that guarantees continued cost increases for years to come.