The Assembly made a big mistake last week.
It approved a bill that adds a Central Jersey rail link to the Circle of Mobility — a list of top state transportation projects. Inclusion in the circle automatically makes the project eligible for federal funding.
However, it didn’t bother to identify the specific route the train would take or how much it is likely to cost.
It left that decision to NJ Transit, an agency whose executive director, former Republican Assemblyman Jeffrey Warsh, wants to push a rail line down the throats of residents in Jamesburg, Monroe and South Brunswick.
The action is comparable to someone writing a blank check against someone else’s bank account to buy a new home, without saying what they want or where they want it. The building could be an apartment, a shack or a mansion. And it could be located almost anywhere.
Not exactly a smart way to do business.
And it’s not the best way to make policy, either.
But it is a fantastic way to play politics. Assembly members were given the opportunity to back the concept of rail service — an easy vote — without having to worry about who gets hurt.
“Ultimately the decision will be made by a body that determines the best possible alignment,” Assemblyman James Holzapfel (R-Ocean), one of the bill’s sponsors, said after last week’s vote.
We find it hard to believe that Assembly members didn’t know which rail line they supported last week. Especially given that NJ Transit and politicians from Monmouth and Ocean counties have been pushing the Lakewood-to-Monmouth Junction line as if it were the answer to their transportation prayers. It should have been obvious to the Assembly that this was the line being discussed.
But by not being specific in its endorsement of a rail line, Assembly members and other elected officials now can put the burden of responsibility for the MOM line on NJ Transit.
The bill now goes to the state Senate, which has yet to schedule a vote. It is up to the Senate to fix the Assembly’s mistake — preferably by voting it down and ending this discussion. If not, it should include a specific alignment in the bill, making it more difficult for legislators to look residents of Jamesburg, Monroe and South Brunswick in the eye and tell them everything will be all right.
And it will make it easier for local residents — and taxpayers across the state — to know whom to blame when this $350 million project comes chugging around the bend.
