Corzine: N.J. voters will have say in toll road plan
New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine said this week he would allow voters to decide on his controversial plan to raise money from the state’s toll roads to reduce debt.
While Corzine he has not provided details of his plan for “asset monetization” or the roadways, he has said it would not involve a sale or lease to a for-profit company or a foreign operator.
Corzine would seem to have an uphill battle to convince New Jersey voters of the benefits of the plan. Support for leasing the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway is slim, with only 31 percent approving of the idea in a poll last month by Quinnipiac University while 54 percent disapprove.
Corzine, a Democrat, hired the investment bank UBS last September to study a transaction involving state assets such as the turnpike.
Leonard Lance, a Republican who is State Senate Minority Leader, charged Corzine with stalling to release of the plan until after elections in the fall.
In remarks to the editorial board of the Asbury Park Press this week, Lance said, “the only way they could bond is to increase tolls drastically.”