Is London Bridge Falling Down in New Jersey and who is this group running an advertisement on the radio with the song “London Bridge is Falling Down?” They are pushing to raise the Gas Tax and they claim to be a coalition of regional chambers of commerce, contractors associations, labor unions, and former state transportation commissioners.
Are they for creating jobs or for fixing our roads? With many road construction firms as members plus the labor unions, it may make you think that they are really about creating jobs for themselves. Their Chairman, Tom Bracken, has stated that Forward NJ is “not assessing blame on anyone, but is strictly focused on providing the governor and the Legislature with a menu of concrete solutions. He said the group would mount a public relations campaign to convince the public of the need to invest in transportation infrastructure to make New Jersey competitive and to provide jobs.” Of course at the top of their list is raising the Gas Tax to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund, a tax that has not been raised in a very long time. And it is the lowest Gas Tax in the country.
Forward NJ is in favor of making the Transportation Trust Fund a dedicated fund, which is a point in their favor. But, I have a problem with this group and it is this they say that they are worried about our roads. Yet, they are pushing for a raise in the Gas Tax. The amount to permanently fix the funds problems would be way over the 15 to 20 cents per gallon increase they are advocating. It is not taken into account that new cars are much more efficient in their usage of gasoline than older models and more electric hybrids are being sold than ever before. This will result in a downward trend in the usage of gasoline and thus the amount of revenue collected over time will go down.
It is a folly of an idea to raise the Gas Tax, as it will result in the lowering the amount of discretionary funds available to both the driving public and the trucking industry. Think about this, if you raise the Gas Tax your costs also are raised for food, consumer goods and shipping costs. And this is just a short list of things that will go up in price as you raise the cost of running a tractor trailer.
What you didn’t think of that; did you? Guess what, I did and so have many others. Forward NJ and many state legislators are just wrong in thinking that raising the Gas Tax will fix the problems the Transportation Trust Fund is experiencing. One of the biggest problems is that New Jersey gets very little money from the Federal Government for our roads; many other states get more than we do. I have to ask why our US Senators and Representatives are not working on getting New Jersey more money?
Maybe it is time for a collation consisting of the people of this state, their representatives, business and labor unions get together to demand more money from Washington. It is only fair that we are sent more money, because our roads are used more than many other states.
If you want to now about Forward NJ here is a link to their website.
Just so you know it is my opinion as an engineer that yes many bridges need to be repaired and no I do not think that any are going to fall down any time soon.
And lastly here is something to think about. There are about 3000 Gas Stations in New Jersey and lets say they pump about 6000 gallons of gas on a typical day. And the New Jersey’s Gas Tax is $0.14 per gallon then multiplying these numbers together with the assumption I have used for a typical day you get $2,520,000 per day. This works out to $919,800,000 per year in tax revenue. Please note that I did not include the tax on Diesel fuel that the state also collects.
Now I hope this makes you wonder where has all that money gone and why do we need to raise the Gas Tax at all?
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
