Weinberg Questions Adequacy of Meager $25M Increase in Governor’s NJ Transit Operating Budget

Majority Leader criticizes reduction in Turnpike subsidy for NJ Transit, says NJT should hold public hearings on ‘Summer of Hell 2’ schedule cuts

Trenton – Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) today sharply questioned the adequacy of NJ Transit’s operating budget at the Senate Budget Committee hearing on the proposed FY20 NJ Transit budget:

“Today,  a ‘Who’s Who’ of New Jersey transit experts and environmental advocates held a press conference to question why the Governor recommended only a $25 million increase in NJ Transit’s $2.3 billion operating budget . That’s an increase of just 1.1% for an agency whose efficiency is critical to our economy and the quality of life of over 900,000 daily bus and rail riders, and that the Governor said was one of his top priorities.

“We know that turning around NJ Transit is going to be difficult, and the problems and challenges inherited from the previous administration have continued since the new administration took office. We had hundreds of train cancellations due to engineering shortages. We had the public embarrassment over Wrestlemania. The Atlantic City Line cancellation that was supposed to last four months lasted for eight months.

“Five weeks from now, we’re going into ‘Summer of Hell 2’ with Montclair-Boonton Line commuters paying the price while Amtrak repairs the other side of Penn Station – and I still do not understand why NJ Transit does not believe it should hold formal public hearings on this as required by our NJ Transit reform legislation when we’re cancelling through service to New York and adding a half hour to the commute for thousands of riders.

“When we met with the Administration last August following weeks of train cancellations, we asked if NJ Transit needed more money – and, in fact, offered, to do a supplemental appropriation out of the surplus. We were told,, ‘No, we have to wait for the audit to be completed, then see what we need.’

“The audit was completed in October, yet the new budget only contains a $25 million increase for NJ Transit operations?

“In a written response to my questions at the March NJ Transit board meeting, NJ Transit reported that its labor costs alone are going up $35 million this year.

“Transit advocates estimate NJ Transit needs at least $75 million more just to cover increased costs and to avoid running a deficit going into next year. That doesn’t even include the fact that we want NJ Transit to provide better service – not more of the same.

“It makes no sense that NJ Transit is only getting a $25 million increase, while the New Jersey Turnpike Authority is getting back $25 million of the subsidy it has been providing to NJ Transit since 2011.

“I rode down the Turnpike today, and it is in good shape. I get no complaints about the Turnpike. I get plenty of complaints about NJ Transit – just about every day. Doesn’t NJ Transit need to keep that $25 million subsidy?

“I would like to know what NJ Transit asked for in its budget request to Treasury. What is the agency not doing it would have been able to do if it received the money it requested?

“Most important, if the Legislature provides $25 million or $50 million or $75 million more for NJ Transit’s budget, how would that money be spent , and what difference would that spending make to the lives of NJ Transit’s 900,000 daily bus, rail and light rail passengers and their families?

“Our transportation infrastructure is the heart of our economy. Hundreds of thousands of customers are counting on us to make the right choices in this budget. If we are really committed to creating a 21st century economy that works for all of us, we need to build a 21st Century transit system that does the same.”