Curtains For NJ Toll Hike Plan?

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine can do basic math, and he knows that he simply doesn't have the votes to pass his massive toll hike plan. Legislative Republicans are solidly against it, and there are enough Democrats opposed to the hikes that the plan is dead on arrival.

"I'm not conceding that it's dead," Corzine said Thursday. "On the other hand, I'm a realist. I don't have 21 votes or 41 votes for this. I might not have any votes for this."

The governor is planning to deliver his budget message Tuesday to the Legislature and had hoped to be able to incorporate the toll plan -- and maybe up to $1 billion from it -- into the spending plan.

The state budget, however, is grim, according to those familiar with early drafts. It is likely to feature layoffs and early-retirement buyouts, sweeping spending cuts and even shuttering of some state agencies. Programs and services for the public will be cut -- including the closing of several prominent state parks.

The governor may have to settle for a watered-down version of his plan as legislators float new ideas for generating revenue and cutting debt.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski, chairman of the Assembly's Transportation Committee, has a plan that features more modest toll hikes and a gas-tax increase as an alternative. Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, is also supporting the sale or lease of the state lottery system and a new tax on water consumption as possible revenue sources.

This means that the Democrat will have to go back to the drawing board to figure out how to balance the state's books, fund the Transportation Trust Fund, and find the money to pay off his cronies in the unions - which was the real purpose of the toll hikes - since more than half the money was going to fund the pension funds that have been underfunded for years because of accounting tricks used by Trenton.

It also means that a gas tax increase is likely to get another look, along with increases to many other taxes and fees to make up the budget. I'm not so sure that Trenton will actually engage in belt-tightening of its state workforce, as it is those unions who helped get Corzine elected, even if it would be the right thing to do. The state employs far more workers per citizen than are needed - there are more workers for fewer citizens than there were only a few years ago, and the level of service provided is no better.

Tax and toll hikes in an economic slowdown will only exacerbate the situation further, and hasten taxpayer flight to more favorable economic climates in the country - states that are more friendly to taxpayers and businesses.