TRENTON – Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, sponsor of the Corzine Administration’s legislative proposal to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund, said it should be viewed by a Senate committee on Monday as “a sensible and reasonable way to keep our roads and bridges safe and our trains and buses rolling.”
The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee will consider Lesniak’s two-bill package at its 1 p.m. meeting in Committee Room 4 of the State House Annex.
The five-year plan to provide up to $1.6 billion annually to repair state and local roads, make bridges safe and support mass transit operations would be funded through re-financed debt and borrowing, but without an increase in the gasoline tax.
“This plan will ensure our ability to meet our transportation needs while we stabilize our State finances,” said Senator Lesniak, D-Union. “What’s critically important now is that we keep moving forward with transportation support while we prepare for a long-term solution.”
Of the two-bill package, S-1470, would replenish the 22-year old Trust Fund and SCR-78, would seek voter approval for an amendment to the State Constitution to dedicate the entire 10.5 cents per gallon of the gasoline tax to the State Transportation system.