N.J. Governor Pushes Toll Hikes

The governor continued to refuse to detail how much he wants tolls to increase, but said he'll present a formal plan in January.

Speaking at a League of Municipalities convention, Corzine, as he has throughout the year, detailed fiscal woes he claims prevent the state from investing in key needs.

"We will get one chance at a serious financial restructuring and it has to be done right," Corzine said. "But you can take this to the bank -- I will be bold in the name of progress."

The Democratic Corzine is up for re-election in 2009, but said, "Make no mistake. I am willing to risk losing my job if that's necessary to set our fiscal house in order and get New Jersey out from the debt burden constraining our future."

Corzine has discussed finding ways to make more money off state properties such as toll roads to pay mounting state debt. He wants to form a nonprofit agency that would manage toll roads and issue bonds to bring the state a quick, large cash infusion.

The bonds would be paid back by increased tolls.

After his speech Thursday, Corzine said the toll increase depends heavily on whether the agency is allowed to sell cheaper tax-exempt bonds. He said he has a wide-range of possible increases in mind, but refused to elaborate.

Corzine has said money earned from his plan could help the state invest in areas such as education, health care and affordable housing, but backed away from that claim on Thursday.

"I think it would be very hard to justify new programs," Corzine said.

A Wall Street finance lawyer, Peter Humphreys, told The Associated Press in August that Corzine would need to increase tolls 150 percent if he was to earn $15 billion, the amount lawmakers have said Corzine's proposal could be worth.

"The governor should be focused on spending cuts and the elimination of government waste instead of trying to sell the public on fiscal gimmicks with a smoke and mirrors PR campaign," said Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, R-Morris.

Tom Wilson, the state Republican Party chairman, predicted "the mother of all toll hikes."

"If Corzine has his way the taxpayers will be footing the bill to the tune of billions more in higher tolls for generations," Wilson said.

The state has about $32 billion in total debt, Corzine said, with this fiscal year's debt payments consuming about 10 percent of the state's $33 billion budget. He said he wants his plan to pay off at least half that debt.

Corzine said he also wants new limits on state borrowing. The state constitution bars the state from borrowing money without voter approval, but courts have allowed independent state agencies to borrow without voter consent.

Corzine didn't detail the new limits, but said they were key.

"I don't want to clean the manure out of the barn, only to have someone else fill it back up," Corzine said.

The Garden State Parkway has had one toll increase and the New Jersey Turnpike four in the last 50 years.

In 1989, parkway tolls increased to 35 cents per toll booth; The last turnpike toll increase was in 2003, a 17 percent hike. The average cash-paying automobile driver pays $1.92 per Turnpike trip.

The parkway is the nation's busiest toll road with the turnpike the nation's fifth busiest, according to the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association.