Editorial: Find new ways to fix state’s infrastructure

   New Jersey needs to fix its failing infrastructure and it needs to fix it as soon as possible.
   But increasing tolls on the N.J. Turnpike and Garden State Parkway does not appear to be the best way to get it done.
   The N.J. Turnpike Authority, in a letter from Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri, is seeking toll hikes of about 42 percent on the turnpike and 43 percent on the parkway in December and 53 percent on the turnpike and 50 percent on the parkway in 2012.
   The increases would be offset to some degree by a series of discounts for off-peak use, fuel-efficient vehicles and senior drivers designed to “lessen the burden on drivers,” the commissioner said.
   Commissioner Kolluri said the toll hikes would be used to fund a $7 billion, 10-year capital plan, along with a $1.25 billion contribution to the Transportation Trust Fund Authority for a new mass-transit tunnel under the Hudson River, linking New Jersey and the Penn Station in New York. The capital plan would include widening of both roads, bridge replacement and other projects.
   Commissioner Kolluri says the plan not only will improve the two toll roads, but will improve the state’s economic climate because it “has the potential to employ hundreds of thousands of New Jersey workers.”
   Republicans in the Legislature already have announced their opposition, saying higher tolls would hurt the economy and that the “diversion” of money to the tunnel was unconstitutional.
   Of more concern is the criticism being raised by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a coalition of planning and environmental groups that seeks to reduce “car dependency.” The campaign says that the $7 billion capital program — in particular, the planned widening of the turnpike between exits 6 and 9 and the parkway — is too ambitious and could “undermine future action necessary to replenish the state’s Transportation Trust Fund, which will run dry in 2011.”
   This essentially is a political argument, but one that should not be taken lightly. A toll hike of the magnitude being proposed, even if it has been scaled back from earlier unpopular proposals, seems likely to reduce New Jersey residents’ already limited willingness to reach into their own pockets to cover public spending — whether it comes in the form of income and gas taxes or tolls.
   Replenishing the fund, the campaign rightly says, should take priority because the list of repair and maintenance projects around the state will do more to relieve traffic congestion. Plus, the campaign says, the state could impose what it calls “more innovative and effective solutions” to traffic, including congestion pricing, high-occupancy toll lanes and increased mass transit.
   We think the governor should send this toll hike plan back to the drawing board and consider other ways of addressing traffic congestion and the state’s crumbling infrastructure.