Thread: N.J. Parkway lease mirrors NAFTA superhighway plan

N.J. Parkway lease mirrors NAFTA superhighway plan
Governor wants to generate money for state budget crisis

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Posted: February 05, 2008
10:28 pm Eastern


By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily


New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, is proposing a variation of the "public-private partnerships," being implemented in other parts of the country and according to critics a danger to the sovereignty of the U.S., as a solution for the state's expected $3 billion budget deficit, the biggest after California and New York.

Under the typical PPP structure that has been supported by the Bush administration, through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration, projects such as the Trans-Texas Corridor highway, are under way. That new highway project is planned to be four football fields wide and run through Texas parallel to Interstate 35 from Laredo to the Oklahoma border.

It is being leased by foreign investors including Cintra, an infrastructure investment consortium in Spain that has made large payment to operate the highway and collect tolls on contracts written to last as long as a half century.

Critics' comments about such plans were typified by an attendee at a conference at which a Colorado "public-private partnership" plan was discussed.

"Under P3, the USA is up for sale," a conference attendee said. "Whatever the public now owns – roads, ports, waste management water systems, rail lines, public parking facilities, airports, even lotteries and sports stadiums – are up for grabs and the only requirement is that the foreigners have the cash."

Corzine's variation is that his public-private partnership would involve the creation of a New Jersey non-profit corporation that would issue bonds to raise the revenue to pay for a 75-year long-term lease on the highway.

The governor is calling the structure a "public benefit corporation," but whatever the name, he faced a hostile crowd at a recent town hall meeting on the issue.

"You’re supposed to be the wizard of Wall Street," an angry citizen challenged Corzine Monday night in Marlboro, N.J. "Can't you come up with a better solution to the state's debt crisis other than leasing away the Garden State Parkway?"

"This scheme to lease the Garden State Parkway doesn't work it's not done on the KISS principle," the questioner insisted. "Why can't you 'Keep it Simple, Stupid?' and just cut state spending until it meets your tax revenue?"

An estimated 750 New Jersey residents, angered the governor failed to propose a reduced New Jersey budget in light of the expected $3 billion deficit, objected to the highway manipulation.

Corzine's goal is to raise immediately somewhere between $32-$38 billion on a one-time basis when the PBC uses the bond revenue to lease what amounts to three highways – the Garden State Parkway, the Atlantic Highway, portions of the New Jersey Turnpike, and Route 440, which links the Turnpike with a Staten Island bridge.

Some $4 billion of the proceeds would be used in a capital reserve for toll road improvements and widening.

An estimated $10 billion would be used to eliminate existing debt on the toll roads and to create the appropriate bond reserves, while an upfront payment in the range of $18-$24 billion would be used to reduce state debt and fund transportation improvements.

"These won’t be junk bonds," Corzine, the onetime head of Wall Street investment banking firm Goldman Sachs pleaded with the Marlboro High School audience. "The bond market has received very favorably state finance proposals linked to a certain stream of revenue, such as toll road receipts."

But for more than an hour, dozens of attendees launching sharply critical questions, some bordering on anger and outrage.

"Why are you going to mortgage New Jersey highways for generations to come, just to get once-only upfront payment of $35 billion?" an attendee asked from the audience.

"You're going to give up some $150 billion in future toll revenues, or more, over decades just to get this one-time bailout," he continued. "What are you going to lease the next time you have a budget deficit?"

At one point, the strain on Corzine revealed itself. "If you have a better solution, let me know," he shot back at one critic.

Some said they did have better ideas: Cutting the budget by dismissing employees and working to reduce pension expenses, disqualifying part-time state workers and various state commissioners from pensions, cutting pension payments, and eliminating various Corzine appointees from participating.

"You talk out of both sides of your mouth and you are mortgaging our future by leasing the Parkway," one citizen said.

Corzine admitted the solution is not all good. "I don't like this situation one bit," he said. "As a politician, I don't like the challenge of having to explain this proposal."

He said under the plan, New Jersey may need to hike tolls 50 percent in 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 to make needed toll road improvements.

"The state transportation fund will be broke in 2011," he said. "If we do nothing, we may have to both increase tolls and raise the gasoline tax in the state by 20 cents or more."

Another audience member said, "We simply don’t trust anybody in Trenton anymore. What will the next governor do, if we let you lease the Parkway now?"

In 1952 the New Jersey Highway Authority was established to oversee final construction on the Garden State Parkway, with the idea that the road would operate as a self-liquidating toll road.

WND earlier reported a top Texas Department of Transportation official told a EuroMoney conference that establishing public-private partnerships that give away control of U.S. infrastructure to foreigners is like playing the casino game "Texas hold'em."

"Sure, you can expect political objections, but if you play your cards right, you'll win," James Bass, the chief financial officer of TxDOT, told a two-day seminar devoted to teaching state government officials how to lease public assets to foreign investment interests.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php? ... geId=55632

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, is proposing a variation of the "public-private partnerships," being implemented in other parts of the country and according to critics a danger to the sovereignty of the U.S., as a solution for the state's expected $3 billion budget deficit, the biggest after California and New York.

New Jersey needs to take a tough stance on illegal immigration as his first step in getting out of debt.


Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln

N.J. citizens are up in arms against this plan.

There is a "WHEN PIGS FLY RALLY" planned for Friday against Gov. Corzine's plan.

Of couse, he went to DAVOS recently. I guess he's picking up the globalist strategy of privitization.

People have been screaming about cutting state workers, cutting the fat from government. This is going to get heated.

Corzine even had a former Rep. nomonee Lanagon arrested for protesting. All charges were dropped when the public outcry of foulplay and freedom of speech last week. Corzine of course, denies having him arrested.

He's a real piece of work.

Corzine is even donating $500,000 of his OWN money to start a new non-profit group to push his plan. In his lifetime, he's used $105 million dollars of his own money to futher his political career.

Info. on the When Pigs fly rally for NJ.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 8802060406



Toll hike foe preps crowd to grill governor
CHRISTINA VEGA
Asbury Park Press

By CHRISTINA VEGA

STAFF WRITER

Hours before Gov. Corzine arrived in Toms River to explain his toll-road proposal at a town hall-style meeting, an anti-tax advocate spoke against the plan to some 200 residents.

Steve Lonegan, a former mayor of Bogota and New Jersey director of Americans for Prosperity, highlighted what he said were dangers Corzine's plan poses to New Jersey's citizens and economy during his presentation Saturday morning at the Toms River Holiday Inn on Route 37.

Lonegan has been a leading opponent of Corzine's plan, which would increase tolls by 800 percent in order to pay off half the state's debt and fund transportation projects. Likening Corzine's plan to paying a credit card bill with another credit card, Lonegan urged residents planning to attend the governor's forum to ask how the state will save money by paying down some of its existing debt with new debt.

"My goal is to educate these people to go to do what I just (said), to go ask these questions, to hammer this thing. Like I said earlier, I think they thought they were just going to go out there and do this dog-and-pony show and not have any opposition. Well, there is opposition," Lonegan said.

Residents demanded that they be allowed to vote on the matter.

Doug Totorelli of Toms River commutes more than 100 miles a day to and from work in Bridgewater. The father of two said the future cost of living will be too high for his 9- and 10-year-olds because of today's debt. "This is going to affect everyone in the pocketbook," Totorelli said.

It was hard to miss Dennis Galante, who sported a T-shirt with a picture of a pig with wings and the phrase "P.I.G. . . . No More Taxes. Cut Spending. Cut the Pork." Galante, of Toms River, is a member of the newly formed Ocean County Flying Pigs Club, an organization he said consists of concerned citizens and reformers who believe the toll hike will devastate Ocean County.

The Ocean County Flying Pigs Club is a spinoff of radio station New Jersey 101.5's Flying Pig Coalition, Galante said.

Talk radio personality Bob Grant of WABC also attended and showed his support for Lonegan, telling the audience, "When people got scared, he got more courageous."

Lonegan, who once sought the Republican nomination for governor, is perhaps best known of late for his arrest outside the governor's toll-road hearing Jan. 19 by Middle Township police in Cape May County. After an uproar, Middle Township authorities dropped charges against Lonegan, saying his protest was constitutionally protected speech.

He provided residents Saturday with a flier with a series of questions to ask the governor at his Toms River meeting. Lonegan said the flier, titled "The Questions the Governor Doesn't Want to Answer," was the reason for his arrest Jan. 19, which he said was part of an intimidation campaign in response to his opposition to Corzine's plan; Corzine has said his administration was not involved in Lonegan's arrest.

Lonegan did not attend Corzine's town hall meeting, at the Ritacco Center in Toms River.

The dems control both houses in Trenton. Corzine has to achieve budget cuts and his past two years of leadership were dismal. He made efforts to have government workers contribute to pension and healthcare but no results. Even shut the state gov down including casinos in 2006. Awarded 14% raise over 4 yrs to state unions. Cost cutting???hospitals and schools busted budget with massive inflow of illegal . His plan to borow $40 bill against our highways and add new toll roads has Wall Streets' mouth watering. Cannot trust state with our money. He must cut spending programs. free day care, school funding, freeze salaries, Huge part of state budget is to fund city schools loaded with foreigners. Enforce immigration laws. Deport

Lonergan is thorn in govs side. Help defeat $450 mil bonds for embryonic cell planned for grants. Days after med researchers announced another way to obtain these cells What is going on?

TOMS RIVER — Close to 2,000 people, including a woman in a flying pig costume, jammed the Ritacco Center Saturday to hear Gov. Corzine sell his financial restructuring plan, which relies on toll increases of 800 percent to pay off half of the state's debt and fund transportation projects.

The crowd at times yelled at the governor, booed him and applauded speakers who echoed their frustrations with the plan.

"We're attacking you because you are attacking us. You're threatening their future and the future of their homes," said Garry Black of Jackson. "Why is South Jersey getting hit again? We'll get hit the hardest."

Most of the crowd left apparently unconvinced of the plan's merits.

Ray Suiter of Jackson said he wanted to hear about it directly from Corzine. Suiter said he remains unpersuaded at the end of the two-hour forum.

"I still don't think the governor is listening to the people. He hears suggestions and says it won't work," said Suiter, who is 47 and has eight years before he plans to retire out of state. "Corzine isn't the originator of the problem, but he should be the solution."

The governor's plan calls for forming a public benefit corporation to run the Garden State Parkway, New Jersey Turnpike and Atlantic City Expressway and to add tolls to Route 440 in Middlesex County. The PBC would increase tolls up to 800 percent, according to a schedule that would allow the state to borrow between $32 billion and $38 billion against toll revenue.
Of that, $16 billion will be used to pay off half the state debt and the rest to fund transportation projects and replenish the transportation trust fund, which runs out of money in 2011.

Corzine offered 20 to 25 percent toll discounts for frequent drivers, funding commuter rail service to interior Ocean and Monmouth counties and widening and upgrading Route 9, as benefits. The governor also pledged that some spending cuts will be included in the fiscal year 2009 budget to be introduced on Feb. 26.

But the message from residents was clear: Significantly cut state spending first before considering a revenue-raising plan, and don't burden only one part of the state.

"The impact will be devastating, not only to New Jersey, but to Burlington, Ocean and Monmouth counties, the majority who travel and use the Parkway and Turnpike," said Lee Kriswell of Toms River. "The citizens of New Jersey have had enough. It is time the government take responsibility for becoming fiscally responsible."

Kriswell said he will leave the state when his children reach age 18.

"How much more can we, as taxpayers, afford to pay?" he asked Corzine.

Corzine said he tried to find the "least burdensome way" to solve the state's fiscal problems, noting that alternate plans would require a 45- to 50-cent increase in the state gasoline tax, a 30 percent sales-tax increase or a 20 percent increase in state income tax to pay off the debt and fund transportation projects. Corzine hinted that some combination of the revenue-raising plans could be considered.

"You can mix and match them, and we'll try and work that out in the next six to eight weeks," Corzine said. "You can yell at me and jump up and down, but something has to be done."

More spending cuts and other revenue raisers were suggested by those who spoke, including Tom Linden of Brick, who said a 5 percent reduction in spending could save $1.7 billion annually.

Corzine said some cuts have been made, including eliminating 2,000 state jobs and freezing hiring. He pledged to freeze spending and ask voters to approve future borrowing.

Corzine said he doesn't believe that tolls will reach the maximum increase. He said the plan isn't meant to burden one region of the state over another.

Steve Steiner, chairman of the Ocean County Tourism Council, said such a toll hike would kill the county tourism industry.

"This will be more onerous to Ocean County than to any other county," said Steiner of Beach Haven. "It will take our main economic engine down."

Other speakers said they fear that the proposed Public Benefit Corporation would create more opportunity for patronage jobs and government corruption.

Corzine said transportation professionals would be hired to do the professional jobs in the PBC, and the corporation would answer to the state attorney general.

John Budzash of Brick, chairman of Hands Across New Jersey, the taxpayer group that fought tax hikes proposed by then-Gov. James J. Florio in the early 1990s, suggested exploring other revenue raisers. He said state land on the Parkway and Turnpike could be leased to hotel chains, toll road-style rest stops could be built on the interstate highways and billboards could be erected along the highways.

Chris Adams, a 28-year-old insurance analyst from Lakewood, said his daily commute to Pennsylvania could cost up to $25 a day if toll hikes are approved. That would wipe out his annual 3 percent raise, he said.

"Who in their right mind would pull a number like 800 percent out of the air?" Adams said. "My salary won't increase that much."

Similar concerns led Melinda Johnson of Toms River to turn down a recent job offer for fear a pay increase would be eaten up by tolls to New Brunswick.

"It's insane," she said.

A group of protesters outside the center displayed signs opposing the plan.

Diane Thorn, 67, and Sara Stewart, 57, both of Toms River, held a sign with a drawing of a camel whose back had been broken by a pile of falling money.

"This is going to go right on the backs of the commuters," Thorn said.

Stewart said toll hikes will force people onto crowded free highways.

"This is going to kill Ocean County," Stewart said. "I live on Route 9, and it's going to get so much worse because people won't want to take the Parkway."

Wearing a "Will the last person in New Jersey, please turnout the lights?"slogan, Chris Amasio of Brick said he believes the governor only came to justify his plan.

"He's not listening to what the people say. It's hinging on one plan," said Amasio, 49, a Parkway commuter. "They need to address the problem, part-time people earning full time benefits (in government jobs)."

ON THE WEB: Visit our Web site, www.app.com, and click on this story for a link to: Governor's financial debt and restructuring plan. Also, click on this story to join the online conversation about this topic in Story Chat.

Staff writer Matt Pais contributed to this story.

In your voice
Read reactions to this story


mrmechanic wrote:

MRDOOWOP, I absolutely agree with you. I'm told the process to remove a governor is long and drawn out so I say let's start NOW! The sooner we roll up our sleeves and get out hands dirty the sooner this messy chore will be over with. Or better yet. How about we demand his resignation?
2/6/2008 8:10:12 PM
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MRDOOWOP wrote:

YOU PEOPLE ARE ALL WHINING ABOUT CORZINE. STOPP THE WHINING AND ORGANIZE A RECALL. GET RID OF HIM. HE IS SO OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE REALITY THE WORKING CLASS FACES, HE BELIEVES HIS INSANITY IS THE ANSWER. ORGANIZE, GET RID OF HIM. TAKE BACK THE STATE FROM THE POLITICAL WHORES IN TRENTON.
2/3/2008 10:59:15 PM
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NJCynic wrote:

You've heard of "The Fuller Brush Man"? Well, "Champagne Jonny" is the "FULLER BULL" MAN!! He's SOOOOOOO FULLER BULL... And he wants his cronies and bed-partners to be "Fuller-Bulls", too!! Their wallets get FULLER and we get BULL!! CUT THE FREAKING SPENDING ALREADY!! LAY OFF 1/3 OF THOSE USELESS LEACHES CALLED "GOVERNMENT WORKERS"!! CHEESE AND TRIPES!! This IDIOT doesn't deserve the air he breathes, let alone the mansion he sleeps in, the car he has chauffeured for him, the meals WE pay for him... need I go on??
2/3/2008 7:09:22 PM
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jerzy519 wrote:

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!! 101.5 is having a rally next Friday, even if you don't use toll roads this will affect you. We need stand up and say no more! UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL! We are one state! We are all in this together,. Where are the Jersey take no sh*t attitudes we are famous for? He is just going to keep taking until we lose our homes and can't feed our familes. I refuse to work just to support his dumb ideas. I work to give my family a better life, not to give the state house a better life. Ocean County started it last night, now let's really drive our point home!!!

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl ... 8802030382

When I woke up in the middle of night there was a committee meeting with transportation, chamber of commerce etc. on C-span and they are planning a huge proposal they just started working on for updating highways all accross the country....first thing I saw in this was the North American uniion....NAFTA super highway!!

This is it they are working in the states and at federal level and will bring it together as one huge project and there will be no stopping it....some of the speakers were talking about a free and easier movement of goods and people across America!!

It is going to go full steam ahead!!! beginning now!