This is another reason to SCREAM at Governor Christie

New jersey is the 3rd highest in maintenance cost.

We don't need higher gas tax, we need cheaper maintenance costs.

http://reason.org/news/show/21st-annual-highway-report

I sent a message to the South Jersey Times and Christie. They repeated a similar editorial as the one below.

 

When it comes to gasoline, New Jersey drivers have two demands: that it’s relatively cheap and that someone pumps it for them. Politicians rarely discuss changing the state’s rock-bottom gas tax rate or mandatory full-serve pumps. Voters are intensely fond of both.

But New Jersey’s highways are brittle and congested. Governors past and present have borrowed so heavily from the Transportation Trust Fund that whatever puny gas taxes we collect are used to pay down billion-dollar debts — with little left over to build new roads or fix old ones.

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak is right: New Jersey’s roads and bridges are failing, and we don’t have the money to fix them. That’s why the Union County Democrat wants to raise the state gas tax by 15 cents a gallon over three years. That’s an increase (scaled down from his original proposal of 24 cents over six years) that is measured and reasonable.

New Jersey’s infrastructure is rotting with age and neglect. Last year, a study concluded we’d need to spend $21 billion over five years just to get into passable shape. A 15-cent gas tax hike would mean an extra $750 million a year.

Despite the glaring need, Gov. Chris Christie is adamantly against any attempts to raise the gas tax — unchanged since 1991 — though he’s a big part of the reason a hike is needed.