August 29, 2007
Assemblyman Sean T. Kean/732-974-0400
11th District - Monmouth County

Assemblyman Sean T. Kean and Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck held a public meeting on Tuesday, August 28 to provide New Jersey residents with a forum in which to express their thoughts on the proposal to monetize the state’s toll roads and hear comments from various groups that will be directly impacted by this proposal.

This was the third meeting that Assemblyman Kean and Assemblywoman Beck, who are members of the General Assembly Transportation and Public Works Committee, have held in Monmouth County on this topic. Both Kean and Beck have voiced their opposition to any plan to sell or lease New Jersey’s toll roads and have asked the Governor to release details about his plan.

“The Governor intends to move forward with this plan, but is refusing to let the public know any of the details,” stated Assemblyman Kean (R-11). “We do not know how much tolls would be increased, who would maintain the roads or make improvements, or any of the financial aspects of this proposal.”

In addition, Assemblyman Kean and Assemblywoman Beck were part of a joint letter to Governor Corzine asking that he make public the completed consulting report that detailed the toll increases and traffic impacts associated with monetizing the State’s toll roads. The State paid $800,000 in taxpayer dollars for this report and approximately $4.5 million in total on the monetization plan.

“The Corzine Administration has used taxpayer dollars to explore the idea of monetizing our State’s toll roads,” said Beck (R-12). “Without question, the public has a right to know how public dollars have been spent in this process and what results this investigation has yielded. This must include the Administration releasing to the Legislature and the public the complete and unedited report detailing the impact of toll increases.”

“This proposal is going to significantly impact on our state’s infrastructure, economy, and the way people travel and commute for generations to come. We should not sell off the state’s greatest assets in order to get a one time cash infusion that could be carelessly squandered,” Kean continued. “Once we sell off our toll roads, New Jersey will no longer have control over the toll prices, snow removal, upkeep, and all the other safety and maintenance activities that we are accustomed to having. In addition, we will have lost the constant revenue stream that the tolls provided.”

Assemblywoman Beck continued, “I firmly believe that a public policy of this magnitude should not be kept under wraps until after November. The public should not be left wondering what impact this scheme will have on their pocketbooks until it is too late to do anything about it. Once a plan is put in place the residents of New Jersey will have to live with the serious repercussions this will certainly have on our State’s long term financial well-being.”