TRENTON, N.J. -- Increasing the gasoline tax, hiking fees for driver's licenses and car registrations, applying the sales tax to gasoline and boosting a tax on expensive vehicles would help New Jersey solve fiscal woes, a new study has found, according to the Associated Press.
The study by think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) said the moves could raise $2.8 billion annually.
That would help lower Democratic Governor Jon S. Corzine's proposed toll increases, which are designed to pay state debt and fund transportation work, but have been criticized by legislators, including [image-nocss] Republicans who questioned whether Corzine's plan was constitutional.
New Jersey has the nation's third-lowest gasoline tax, at 14.5 cents per gallon, and it has not been increased since 1988, but Democratic senators have been weighing increasing it to ease Corzine's proposed toll increases.
NJPP has proposed a 20-cent per gallon gasoline tax increase to generate $1 billion each year, and applying the sales tax to gasoline to raise $900 million a year. It also proposes doubling registration fees on new, smaller cars and tripling fees on larger cars to increase revenue by $480 million a year; doubling drivers' license fees to $48 to raise $340 million a year; and increasing a state fee charged to cars costing $45,000 and more to generate about $145 million a year.Corzine wants to pay at least half of $32 billion in state debt and fund transportation projects for 75 years by creating a nonprofit corporation to manage toll roads and borrow up to $38 billion. To pay that money back, he wants to increase tolls 50% in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022. Those increases would include inflation adjustments and, after 2022, tolls would increase every four years until 2085 to reflect inflation.
NJPP President Jon Shure said toll increases could still be part of the solution. "But we offer the gas tax and car-related fees as a way to raise money statewide, which tolls don't do," he said.
Sal Risalvato, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline-Convenience-Automotive Association, decried a gasoline tax increase. "Any tax increase would mean consumers will have less money to spend in the marketplace, hurting businesses and threatening job security for countless others," he told AP, instead backing major spending cuts.
Click hereto view the NJJ report.
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