By Peter Kasabach

To help close an $80 million budget gap, NJ Transit has proposed to increase its fares an average of 9 percent, effective Oct. 1, 2015. This would be the first fare increase in five years; the last fare increase averaged 22 percent. As part of this proposal, some bus and train service would also be reduced. Meanwhile, the state’s gas taxes, already among the lowest in the nation, have not been raised since 1988.

As an organization dedicated to ensuring that New Jersey’s growth is directed toward places with existing infrastructure, including transit, and away from the state’s precious open space, New Jersey Future is deeply concerned about the lopsided nature of these cost burdens.

Market trends and state policy are both directing future residential and employment growth to New Jersey’s urban and more developed suburban areas, which rely heavily on transit. Allowing a fare increase without also raising the gas tax is exactly the opposite of sound economic and growth policy, in effect subsidizing a dying form of sprawl development while creating new barriers to redeveloping our downtowns and cities. [Read more…]