Legislators to move against toll road leases

February 26, 2007

By TOM HESTER Jr., ASSOCIATED PRESS

TRENTON -- Assembly lawmakers opposed to leasing New Jersey's toll roads to private companies were set to discuss making such a move more difficult Monday for Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

The Assembly Transportation Committee plans to debate legislation that would:

• Prohibit the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which also operates the Garden State Parkway, from contracting with a private company to operate highways.

• Require voters to approve the sale or lease of any state asset worth more than $100 million. Legislators have estimated the Turnpike and Parkway could bring $15 billion through a 75-year lease.

• Ban the state from leasing and selling transportation facilities to foreign companies. A Spanish-Australian consortium leased toll roads in Indiana and Chicago.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the committee chairman, said he wants to ensure all ideas surrounding toll road leasing are debated before any plan is presented for approval. He opposes leasing toll roads.

"There needs to be a full discussion, a very robust discussion," said Wisniewski, D-Middlesex.

Corzine hasn't proposed a toll road lease, but his administration is considering toll road leases and other moves to help pay state debt and to free money for other needs. When the governor discussed his budget proposal Thursday, he warned that such moves may be necessary if the state is to invest in public school construction, open space preservation, health care and other needs.

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak has introduced legislation that would allow the state to lease the Turnpike and Parkway to a private company for 75 years. He estimates such a lease could earn the stat up to $15 billion. His bill would let the private company increase tolls annually.

A state consultant recently deemed the Atlantic City Expressway the state's easiest toll road to lease to a private company.

Corzine has been eying the deals in Chicago and Indiana. Chicago will get $1.83 billion for a 99-year lease. Indiana will get $3.85 billion for a 75-year lease.