Christie says Sweeney and Prieto have not shared their gas tax plan with him

MMM file photo

Brian T. Murray, Governor Chris Christie’s spokesman, told MMM in an email that Christie has not seen the Transportation Trust Fund legislation that Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto announced today.

New Jersey’s infrastructure construction projects have been shut down since July 8 when the TFF was down to a $10 million balance which being held for emergency projects.

“The Senate President and the Assembly Speaker must be more interested in publicly pretending that they have accomplished something on TTF before they go off to the Democratic convention rather than actually accomplishing something,” Murray said. “They have not shared the specific details of their joint proposal with the Governor beyond the vague generalities contained in their press release. The Governor will review those specifics if he receives them from Senator Sweeney and Speaker Prieto. Only then can he determine if their plan to fund the TTF with an increased gas tax offers tax fairness to the people of New Jersey in the form of significant broad-based tax relief.”

Senator Jennifer Beck, an outspoken opponent of a gas tax increase said the Democratic leaders’ plan is no better than the plan that failed in June.

“The tax plan announced by Democrats today would still raise the gas tax by 23 cents per gallon, just as the last failed plan would have,” said Beck. “The cosmetic changes that the Senate President and Assembly Speaker have agreed to are just window dressing on the core $1.2 billion tax increase on drivers that remains largely unchanged from the previous version of the legislation.”