DNC Over; Back To Work To Fix New Jersey's Transportation Trust Fund
TRENTON, NJ (CBS) -- With the Democratic National Convention complete, New Jersey legislators return to their efforts to replenish the state's Transportation Trust Fund.
A vote in the Senate Budget committee is set for Friday.
When last we heard from Senate President Steve Sweeney, he'd just struck a deal with Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto on tax cuts to ease the pain of a 23 cent a gallon gas tax hike. That's a deal declared "dead on arrival" by Governor Chris Christie. But Sweeney is undaunted.
"We came up with a plan we agreed to, in both houses, and have Republican support and he's trying to scare off the Republicans," Sweeney told KYW Newsradio.
The difference between that plan, and one agreed to by Prieto and Governor Chris Christie earlier this month, is a proposed 1% reduction in the state's 7% sales tax. Christie supported that, but Sweeney says it would blow a 1.8 billion dollar hole in future state budget. The accord between Prieto and Sweeney eliminates the sales tax cut, replacing it with other tax credits including one for the gas tax itself.
Sweeney says Christie is calling Republicans, urging them to support him in this battle.
How effective is Christie's effort? Sweeney says he's got enough GOP votes in the Senate to override a certain Gubernatorial veto. He's not sure, though, about whether Prieto's got enough people on the Assembly side to do likewise.
The new compromise is likely to pass in the Senate Budget Committee today. What happens after that is anyone's guess, although Sweeney predicts dire consequences if the impasse drags on into the fall.
"Things are going to get worse," he said. "Roads are going to get a lot worse and God forbid a bridge falls down."
Hundreds of local road projects have been held up as a result of the dispute, with several thousand workers put on indefinite layoff as a result.