Tunnel Of No Love

New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie has pulled the plug on the Hudson River Tunnel project, saying the state can't afford its share of the project that would have doubled train traffic from New Jersey to Manhattan, despite the fact that the Feds were putting up $3 billion to help cover the costs.

The governor, a Republican, said he decided to withdraw his support for the project on Thursday after hearing from state transportation officials that the project would cost at least $2.5 billion more than its original price of $8.7 billion. He said that New Jersey would have been responsible for the overrun and that he could not put the taxpayers of the state “on what would be a never-ending hook.”

In scrapping the project, Mr. Christie is forfeiting the $3 billion from the federal government and jeopardizing as much from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The state may also have to repay the federal government for its share of the $600 million that has already been spent on the tunnel.

The tunnel, which would have stretched under the Hudson from North Bergen, N.J., to a new station deep below 34th Street in Manhattan, was intended to double the number of trains that could enter the city from the west each day. The project’s planners said the additional trains would alleviate congestion on local roads, reduce pollution, help the growth of the region’s economy and raise property values for suburban homeowners.

The tunnel was also supposed to provide jobs for 6,000 construction workers just as some other big transit infrastructure projects in the city, like the Second Avenue subway, were winding down.

Instead, the contractors hired to dig the tunnel will soon start laying off workers.

Takes infrastructure money to make infrastructure money, but not for New Jersey.  After all, Republicans hate infrastructure...it would actually prove government can have a beneficial purpose by investing in the state, and we can't have that.  The Kroog is pissed.

The story seems to be that Christie wants to divert the funds to road and bridge repair; but in so doing he would (a) lose huge matching funds from the Port Authority and the Feds (b) delay indefinitely a project NJ needs desperately ASAP. He could avoid these consequences by raising gasoline taxes. But no, taxes must never be raised, no matter what the tradeoffs.

And it’s a social bad too: now is very much the time when we should be ramping up infrastructure spending, not cutting it.

Awesome.

And yes, if anyone should mention it, I am a resident of New Jersey who often visits Manhattan, and therefore has a personal stake in this project. You got a problem with that?

Hey, Kroog's willing to pay more for infrastructure improvements, but Christie's more than willing to pass up the federal and NY funds and scrap 6,000 construction jobs and up to 38,000 more transit, support, and maintenance jobs that went with it.  Oh I know, these are jobs Obama lost, right?

That's what's in store for all of us under more Republican rule:  stagnation and decay...and job losses.