New Jersey Transit Issues $5.8 Billion Plan Lacking Funding

(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Transit outlined $5.8 billion in capital spending over five years with no clear funding source. Governor Phil Murphy said he was pushing for borrowing and far-from-certain federal cash tied to the pandemic recovery.

The nation’s largest statewide mass-transportation provider listed bus garages, station upgrades, bridge replacements, coach and rail-car purchases, and state-of-good-repair projects to address years of slipping safety and reliability amid budget cuts. The plan includes buses run on electricity and a battery pilot project for trains.

The proposal’s total expenditure is more than four times the $1.4 billion the agency receives annually from the state and federal government.

The outline, though, didn’t specify the source of any potential funding, and its contents were labeled “a vision document,” one not intended for budgeting purposes. Transportation advocates, legislative leaders and Murphy have said that NJ Transit, key to New York City jobs, needs a dedicated and reliable funding stream.

“The ability to borrow at the state level” was one funding avenue, Murphy said at a Trenton news conference, and he referenced the Assembly’s authorization on June 4 for $5 billion in long- and short-term borrowing to fill an estimated $10.1 billion revenue gap through June 2021. If that plan wins state Senate approval and is signed, it almost certainly faces a legal challenge from minority Republicans on a state constitutional borrowing limit.

Murphy repeated his call for “direct cash assistance” from the federal government to remedy the revenue plunge caused by the coronavirus in a state that’s reported 12,214 pandemic deaths and is just starting to reopen after Murphy’s March 21 shutdown order. U.S. Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell, though, has resisted authorizing such a use of federal money.

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