N.J. Assembly Cuts Transportation Deal With Christie
Not long before 1 a.m. on June 28, New Jersey’s Assembly dominated by Democrats turned its back on a package that paired a fuel-tax increase with a phase-out of the estate tax and approved a deal with Republican Gov. Chris Christie that balances the fuel-tax rise with a 1% decrease in the state’s sales tax by 2018.
It’s unclear how the Senate will react to the Assembly’s 53-23 vote to rescue New Jersey’s Transportation Trust Fund, whose borrowing authority expires on July 1. Senate President Steve Sweeney, the biggest booster of the package approved by both chambers’ budget committees last week, couldn’t be reached for comment.
In a statement, Speaker Vincent Prieto termed the new legislation "a much better bill. This will mean that we will put money into the hands of the people that need it the most, so they’ll be able to have an economic impact a lot quicker than the bill that we were trying to do before. And then we will actually be funding our Transportation Trust Fund that will be able to invest on our road infrastructure to be able to put people back to work and spur our economy by them being able to have more buying power.”
Christie, who had opposed Sweeney’s deal because of what he called a lack of “tax fairness,” applauded the Assembly’s action.
"I am pleased that the Assembly has heeded my suggestion for tax fairness, which I have been calling for a long time," Christie said in a statement. "This is the first broad-based tax cut for all New Jerseyans since 1994. It is much-needed while at the same time we are going to have constitutionally dedicated revenue to improve roads, bridges and the mass transit systems in the state. After the action the Assembly took, I look forward to working with the Senate between now and Thursday [when the upper chamber is expected to vote] to hopefully bring this issue to a successful conclusion.”
