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Why Christie Ordered All Road Work in New Jersey to Stop

Governor Christie has ordered the state to start shutting down road construction work after the fight to pay for road and bridge projects – now a stalemate over raising the gas tax and cutting the sales tax – stalled in the state Senate, where lawmakers were unwilling to accept his plan.

Governor Christie has ordered the state to start shutting down road construction work after the fight to pay for road and bridge projects – now a stalemate over raising the gas tax and cutting the sales tax – stalled in the state Senate, where lawmakers were unwilling to accept his plan.

 

The fight will lumber into July, when a packed summer schedule of vacations and political conventions leaves little time for elected officials to hammer out a new plan.

 

 

Two separate efforts to reach a grand compromise to raise gas taxes, fix New Jersey’s infrastructure crisis and provide tax relief to core Democratic and Republican voters fell apart Thursday.

 

 

That, Christie said hours after lawmakers left Trenton, was reason enough to start planning for a shutdown of all road work covered by the Transportation Trust Fund. He directed state officials to prepare for an “orderly” shutdown and have a plan in place by Saturday.

 

“Senate Democrats are clearly conflicted over how to appease their public- and private-sector union masters, because their union masters also are divided over the bipartisan tax fairness solution that passed the Assembly,” Christie said in his statement. “The Senate’s inaction also ignored New Jersey’s necessary transportation infrastructure improvements, as well as the hundreds of private-sector workers who came to Trenton today with their jobs hanging in the balance, because the Senate failed to reauthorize this Transportation Trust.”

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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