THE COURAGE TO SPEND … YOUR TOLL MONEYLegislative Democrats Endorse Secret Turnpike Sale …Sight Unseen!  

            Senator Anthony Bucco, (R-Morris), issued the following statement regarding published reports that  the  Trenton Democrats are equating a bill that allowed the state to take advantage of a tax shelter with the Corzine administration’s secret plan to auction off New Jersey’s toll roads to the highest bidder.

            “The Trenton Democrats have moved from a policy of no information, to a policy of disinformation.  “They have desperately claimed that leasing an office building to a private firm, who would then lease it immediately back and in turn would be able to claim the depreciation value as a credit against their federal taxes, is the same thing as selling off a multi-billion dollar, revenue generating asset, to a private entity that will keep and raise toll revenues for decades to come.”

“Unfortunately for the Democrats, voters are able to see right through their charade, as evidenced by the tanking poll numbers for the governor’s secret plan.  No amount of inaccurate newspaper stories planted by the administration can re-write the fact that the Trenton Democrats are waiting until after the election to dramatically increase tolls beyond what is required for debt service and maintenance of the roads, in return for an upfront payment, which they will promptly spend without constraint or meaningful safeguards for the taxpayers.”   

            “The debate on the Trenton Democrat’s plan to sell the State’s toll roads now moved from official secrecy to official deceit.  Worse still, media reports indicate that key legislative Democrats appear to have endorsed the secret plan without ever having seen it, which is a disaster for New Jersey’s motorists and taxpayers alike.  It appears that the lure of a huge one-time payment to support even higher levels of government spending and borrowing is simply too great for the Trenton tax machine to ignore.”