Tue Sep 14, 2010 at 06:58:37 PM EDT
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promoted by Rosi
A story is up on nj.com saying that Christie is claiming it was his decision to put a 30-day hold on construction of the ARC Tunnel, the new rail tunnel connecting NJ with New York, two days ago.
Up til now, it has been unclear what was going on with this hold. This story makes this a big deal for a few reasons:
(1) It would be a really stupid move to kill this tunnel because it is a great idea for New Jersey. The federal government has pledged $3 billion in support; the Port Authority another $3 billion. New Jersey has to put in $2.7 billion. In return, New Jersey gets $18 billion in increased home values, translating into $375 million in increased local property taxes collected every year. That may sound crazy, but it's happened before - as a result of the smaller Midtown Direct project in the 1990s, NJ became a much more desirable place to live for people who work in New York, and according to the Ledger we now have four times as many people who work in NYC living in NJ as we used to, and they bring back $50 billion a year in income to New Jersey. That creates jobs here and helps towns balance their budgets. Not to even mention that something like 70 towns now will have access on the train to New York much quicker, without transferring in Secaucus, or the potential environmental benefits.
So, in sum, this should be a no-brainer for anyone - we are using mainly other people's money to make our state a more attractive and wealthier place. And it's about time - wasn't Christie just complaining a couple of months ago about how little we get back from Washington?
More below the jump... |
| the_promised_land :: This Rail Tunnel Thing is a Big Deal |
| (2) It would be a colossally stupid political move on Christie's part to kill the tunnel - and tell us something more about his politics. I don't usually quote David Brooks columns because, well, David Brooks is infuriating. But it just so happens that his column today is spot on about what is at stake here. Brooks argues that Republicans nationally are caught up in an anti-government fanaticism that contrasts with conservative tradition and brought down the Gingrich Revolution not so long ago. He argues that there is some role for government to do a limited set of things that make the private sector work - infrastructure and the like. But there is such knee-jerk anti-government attitude that we risk damaging the economy.
It's hard to think of a more conservative role for government than providing basic infrastructure. And this is a real test of where Christie stands on whether there is any role for government or whether he is saying no to everything. For our sake as Democrats, I hope he says no to this because it will give a significant part of the business community
grave doubts about Christie and present an opening for the Democrats to distinguish themselves as a competent party that will build the economy. Then again, for our sake as a state, I hope Christie keeps it going, because we sure aren't going to get this done anytime soon otherwise.
(3)We still don't really know what's going on. There are strands reminiscent of the Race to the Top controversy - mixed messages (Christie doesn't comment for two days and then comes out in force, his NJ Transit director initially says this is one thing and then Christie says it is something else), the possibility of losing huge amounts of federal funding, etc. Seems like something strange may be afoot.
All that being said, for the sake of our state, I would welcome Christie being able to find real savings that don't doom the project and/or federal funding - not the kind of crazy go-all-the-way-back to the drawing board schemes being presented by the Sierra Club and others which ignore reality, but reasonable cost overruns, etc. And maybe that is all that is happening here. But it could be something bigger, and we should be watching. Really closely. |
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