800% Toll Increase Doesn't Have 21 Votes

Only a few days before his budget address, Governor Corzine and a key legislator are both acknowledging that they do not have the votes necessary to enact the Governor's toll road proposal.

"I'm not conceding that it's dead. On the other hand, I'm a realist. I don't have 21 and 41 votes for this," Corzine said, referring to the minimum votes he needs to push his proposal through the state Senate and Assembly.

Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) flatly said Corzine's complex plan to use huge toll increases to sharply reduce state debt and pay for road projects is on the scrap heap.

"It's dead as we know it," Lesniak said. "That doesn't mean it couldn't come back in a revised, trimmed-down version."

That's welcome news to the state's businesses and taxpayers. Perhaps the Administration is correct and our fiscal problems cannot be solved by cuts alone. However, before the nation's most overburdened taxpayers can be asked to pay more, the government must do all it can to reduce the size of government (not just the rate of growth). We are hopeful that the Governor's budget will reflect that objective.