NJPIRG Citizen Lobby, the Sierra Club, the IFPTE196 (Toll
workers union), and Hands Across New Jersey announced a variety of
concerns with privatization of any of New Jersey’s toll roads. While
each group had different core concerns, several were shared. Chief
among the shared concerns were the measures usually necessary to
attract investors: decades of annual toll increases, and limits on
building or improving roads that drivers might use to avoid paying the
high tolls.
“New
Jersey’s highways should be managed for the public’s interest, not
private profit,” explained Abigail Field, Legislative Advocate for
NJPIRG. “Decisions about where and when to build or expand our roads,
and what tolls to charge, should all be made based on New Jersey’s
needs, not a company’s profit margin.”
“By
selling the Turnpike we’re outsourcing the government and its
responsibility to protect the environment and New Jerseyans,” said Jeff
Tittel, Director of New Jersey Sierra Club. “Whether it’s putting in
interchanges for sprawl projects or using cheaper, environmentally
damaging materials on the road, or discouraging mass transit to keep
people on the toll road, it amounts to government abandoning its
responsibilities.”
The
groups also noted that recent deals privatizing the Indiana Toll Road
and the Chicago Skyway involved very long term leases: 75 and 99 years,
respectively. “99 years ago Ford introduced the Model T, and 50 years
ago Congress authorized building the interstate freeway system,” noted
Field. “There’s no way New Jersey can know now what its transportation
needs will be 50, 75 or 99 years from now. New Jersey shouldn’t hand
over its transportation management for that kind of time frame.”
Loss
of public input and control was a significant concern. Limits on the
ability to build or improve roads near the Turnpike would have major
impacts on communities’ quality of life, but those communities would
have no ability to do anything about the resulting congestion. An
obvious accountability issue relates to tolls; the recent Indiana and
Chicago deals allow for annual toll increases, by contract, with no
accountability to voters for four or five generations.
Another
common concern was: where will the money go? Selling the toll revenue,
the groups noted, traded many years of a recurring revenue for
immediate gain. Given the overwhelming financial pressures facing the
state—promised property tax relief, a deeply troubled transportation
trust fund, high debt service costs, an empty open space trust fund,
high taxes, underfunded pension obligations and a looming budget
deficit—how can New Jerseyans be sure that privatized highways aren’t
just another budget gimmick that makes the near term financial picture
sound but sacrifices our already precarious long term financial health?
John
Budzash, Chairman of Hands Across New Jersey noted, " New Jersey is a
Not For Profit Corporation. The state is self-insured and pays no
taxes; no income, sales, real estate, corporate, or business personal
property taxes, and no taxes to cover unemployment. The only way a
private business could claim to run our roads better than New Jersey
while paying all these taxes and making a profit, is that New Jersey’s
management is incompetent. Instead of selling our assets,” Budzash
continued, “Governor Corzine needs to address the mismanagement,
corruption and incompetence of NJ government. Selling these roads is a
scam that will make politically connected contractors more wealthy,
while all New Jerseyans suffer regardless of whether they use these
roads."
NJPIRG CitizenLobby
is one of the state’s largest advocacy groups, working for the public
interest on behalf of our 25,000 members. Our mission is to deliver
persistent, results oriented public interest activism that empowers
consumers, encourages a fair, sustainable economy, and fosters
responsive, democratic government. We uncover threats to public health
and well-being and fight to end them, using the time tested tools of
investigative research, media exposés, grassroots organizing, advocacy
and litigation.
