Selling the NJ Turnpike, One Lane at a Time

Gov. Jon Corzine is still set on selling off one of the state's biggest assets, the New Jersey Turnpike. His ambitious plan to sell the whole thing was thwarted, but that hasn't stopped him from trying alternative methods to reach the same results.

He's now considering a plan that would have a private consortium build and operate any lanes that are added to the Garden State Parkway and or the New Jersey Turnpike.

Now, after all those ideas have been shot down, Mr. Corzine is considering a new prospect for financing critical infrastructure and reducing congestion on the road: Privatize individual lanes.

“It does make you wonder what’s next,” said Jon Shure, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a nonprofit research organization.

On Monday, the State Senate president, Richard J. Codey, a Democrat of Essex County, unveiled his proposal for a private company to build an extension on the turnpike from Exit 8A to Exit 6 and on the Garden State Parkway from Exit 82 down to an exit in the 30s for drivers willing to pay extra to avoid traffic.

At the same time, State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, a Democrat from Union County who is chairman of the Economic Growth Committee, offered his own twist, suggesting that the new lanes be reserved for buses and trucks.

Both senators said that the state could not afford a pending $2.7 billion expansion of the turnpike and that bringing in a private company would be the fastest way to raise the money without increasing tolls or taxes.

Even the New York Times considers Corzine's prior plans to be bizarre, and his latest ideas are no different. The State is essentially trying to sell or leverage its assets to get money up front to pay for some projects, but given how states have squandered such opportunities in the past, and how New Jersey in particular is never interested in cutting spending, such a proposal will only result in higher tolls and poor service.