The Port Authority’s billion-dollar toll hike proposal is on a fast track through public hearings today and slated for approval by the Port Authority board Friday. But look for Gov. Chris Christie and his New York counterpart, Andrew Cuomo, to slam on the brakes.

In fact, New Jersey Democratic leaders have suggested that it is hard to regard the hastily assembled plan as anything more than an elaborate political exercise designed to elicit a storm of protest over the Port Authority’s demand for unprecedented toll and fare hikes from economically strapped commuters. That would give political cover to Govs. Christie and Cuomo to say they held the line on outrageous fare hikes by insisting on lower increases instead.

Christie’s insistence that he was shocked by the size of the increase — and that he didn’t know how big it would be until two days ahead of time when David Samson and Bill Baroni, whom he appointed as Port Authority chairman and deputy executive director, told him — was ridiculed by Democratic leaders.

When the Port Authority announced its plan to hike its $8 bridge and tunnel tolls to $12 in September and $14 in 2014 and to raise single PATH train fares from $1.75 to $2.75 on August 5, Christie and Cuomo were ready to go with a joint press release that same day, questioning the wisdom of such large increases in a recessionary economy and suggesting that all governments, including the Port Authority, needed to learn to live within their means.

What was startling was not that Republican Christie and Democratic Cuomo, who have made national reputations as cost-cutters, were ready so quickly to question a plan put together by their own appointees. The surprise was that the Port Authority seemed so unready to publicly defend it.

Bad News?

Instead of holding a major press conference with the usual array of budget data and charts, the Port Authority brass issued a three-page press release on a Friday afternoon — long considered the best day to release bad news — and essentially has gone into a bunker ever since, hiding behind a steady stream of endorsements from building trades unions and mass-transit advocates.

Christopher Ward, the Port Authority’s executive director, finally broke nine days of silence by Port Authority senior officials yesterday afternoon by issuing a written statement defending the increase as “absolutely necessary.” He said the agency had “considered lesser increases,” but concluded that a $2 toll increase in September and a second $2 increase in 2014 would not provide “reasonable assurance” that tolls would not have to be increased again in the near future.

But neither Ward nor any other Port Authority senior official has given an interview, no budget data or revenue projections have been released other than the three-page press release (this from an agency whose last budget document was 118 pages long), and Port Authority officials are unlikely to answer substantive questions about their plan at today’s public hearings, even during the online hearing scheduled for this afternoon.

In fact, it would be hard for angry motorists and PATH riders to come up with intelligent questions: The Port Authority has not laid out how it plans to spend the estimated $9.5 billion that would be raised over the next decade through the toll and fare hikes nor has it provided any long-range revenue projections.

New Capital Plan

The $9.5 billion revenue increase will be part of a new $33 billion capital plan for the years 2012 to 2021 that will be developed by the Port Authority only after the toll and fare hikes to pay for the program are approved.

Presumably, the new 10-year capital plan would be part of the 2012 Port Authority budget document, and it would be that plan that the Port Authority would present to Moody’s, the bond-rating agency that warned last winter that it would lower the Port Authority’s credit rating if it did not resolve its revenue-to-spending shortfall.

Meanwhile, all that the Port Authority is prepared to say publicly is that five projects totaling $4.5 billion are “contingent” on the toll hikes: replacement of the 75-year-old suspender cables on the George Washington Bridge ($1 billion), replacement of the Lincoln Tunnel entry helix ($1.5 billion), raising the Bayonne Bridge to accommodate deeper-draft cargo ships ($1 billion), construction of a new bus garage at the Port Authority Bus Terminal ($800 million) and new security barriers and other security upgrades at the three airports ($360 million). The PATH fare hikes, the agency said, would be dedicated entirely to PATH projects, including replacing 340 cars, upgrading security and signal systems, and adding 10-car platforms to refurbished stations.

Overall, sources said, up to 240 projects could be eliminated or scaled back if the toll hikes do not go through. But many of these projects, both large and small, were part of the original $29.5 billion 10-year capital plan for 2007 through 2016 that was scaled back to $24.5 billion in the wake of the Great Recession. Their inclusion in the press release does not answer questions raised by Christie and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, in particular, about Port Authority spending decisions made over the past decade.

Menendez has called for a full audit, and Christie has blamed past “mismanagement” by Port Authority officials for cost overruns at the World Trade Center, in particular.

Ward, appointed executive director of the Port Authority by former New York Gov. David Patterson, acknowledged in a recent New York Times interview that the World Trade Center will cost $3 billion more than expected, that the 1,000-per-square-foot cost is twice the average, that it will be decades before the project makes money, and that “you would never build this if you were a private developer.”

A Mystery

But the actual cost of the World Trade Center project to the Port Authority is still a public mystery. As of late yesterday afternoon, Port Authority officials were still unable to respond to a Friday question posed to spokesman Ron Marsico about how much of the projected $11 billion cost of the project would be covered by federal grants and insurance settlement funds, and how much would have to come out of Port Authority funds — and thus out of the pockets of motorists, airline passengers or ships using the port.

If Christie, U.S. Sens. Menendez, Frank Lautenberg and Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski, the Middlesex County Democrat who doubles as state party chairman, have been more vocal than Cuomo in their drumbeat of criticism of the Port Authority toll and fare hikes, it is not surprising because New Jerseyans pay at least 55 percent of bridge and tunnel tolls and 80 percent of PATH fares.

Normally, Port Authority capital spending is split evenly between New Jersey and New York projects through an “understanding” that goes back to the beginning of the agency. But with the World Trade Center being treated as a special project — and not part of the usual 50-50 split — New Jersey officials have been asking harder questions than usual about Port Authority spending, even though the WTC project is seen more as a patriotic imperative than a business venture. So far, they have not been given answers, and Christie has said he will need more information before approving any increase.

Politically, however, Christie may need the Port Authority spending more than Cuomo does because not only does New Jersey lag behind New York state in job creation and revenue growth, but also because New Jersey’s gas tax is just 14.5 cents per gallon – one of the lowest in the nation – and far below the 43 cents per gallon that New York collects to fund transportation projects.

Christie has absolutely ruled out an increase in the gas tax and pushed through a five-year Transportation Trust Fund last year built on using redirected toll increases from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and capital funding from the Port Authority to provide most of the matching funds needed to continue to draw down the maximum amount of federal transportation funding for capital projects. That includes more than $1.3 billion in New Jersey Turnpike money and $1.8 billion in Port Authority funds originally set aside for the proposed ARC (Access to the Region’s Core) rail passenger terminal under the Hudson that Christie cancelled because he was worried that New Jersey would be on the hook for expected cost overruns.

Special Class

“We are relying increasingly on toll payers as a special class to pay for projects that would normally be underwritten by taxes paid by all users such as the gas tax,” noted Martin Robins, the respected former director of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Policy institute, who nevertheless supports the Port Authority proposal because he believes that it is the only politically viable option to fund needed transportation projects.

While the Port Authority welcomes the support of mass-transit advocates like Robins, it is counting on the support of the building trade unions to persuade Christie to back a substantial toll and fare hike. Christie has built a national reputation among conservatives by attacking teachers unions and other public-sector unions, but he has enjoyed a close relationship with the building trades and especially with key legislators like Senate President Steve Sweeney and Senator Donald Norcross. Sweeney and Norcross, both longtime building trades union officials, took the lead in passing legislation increasing public employee contributions to cover their pension and health benefit costs and stripping public employees of the right to bargain over healthcare issues for the next four years.

All of the building trades unions have mobilized to support the Port Authority toll and fare increases as the only large-scale economic stimulus package likely to be implemented in the years ahead, making Christie’s decision about just how large a toll and fare increase to support a politically sensitive one for the Republican governor if he is counting on the support of the building trades for a 2013 reelection campaign.

The Port Authority’s plan would raise bridge and tunnel tolls, which were just increased from $6 to $8 three years ago, to $12 next month and to $14 in 2014, and it would hike the cost of one PATH trip by 57 percent, from $1.75 to $2.75, beginning next month.

Meanwhile, all of the public hearings on the unprecedented toll and fare hikes is tomorrow, including two here in Jersey City: at the Port Authority Technical Center (241 Erie Street, Room 212) at 8 am, and at the Holland Tunnel Administration Building (13th and Provost Streets, Conference Room) at 6 pm. There is also an online hearing at 2 pm at www.panynj.gov, as well as six other hearings around the area:

Newark Liberty International Airport
1 Conrad Road
Building 157, Bay 3
Newark, NJ 07114
973-961-6161
8 am

Port Authority Technical Center
241 Erie Street, Room 212
Jersey City, NJ 07310
201-216-2700
8 am

Port Ivory/Howland Hook
40 Western Ave.
Staten Island, NY 10303
718-330-2950
8 am

Port Authority Bus Terminal
625 8th Avenue
Times Square Conference Room – 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10018
212-502-2240
8 am

George Washington Bridge Administration Building
220 Bruce Reynolds Way
Conference Room
Fort Lee, NJ 07024
201-346-4005
6 pm

George Washington Bridge Bus Station
4211 Broadway
Lower Level Conference Room
New York, NY 10033
201-346-4005
6 pm

John F. Kennedy International Airport
Port Authority Administration
Building 14, 2nd Floor Conference Room
Jamaica, NY 11430
718-244-3501
6 pm

Photo: Richard Wilson

For decades, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has been one of the region’s key economic drivers, pulling in ever-increasing revenues from its airports, cargo ports and bridge and tunnel tollbooths and pumping that money back into the economy in massive job-creating infrastructure projects.

Now it’s the Port Authority that’s overextended and strapped for revenue, as its unprecedented request for a $1 billion-a-year toll and fare hike shows. The plan would raise bridge and tunnel tolls, which were just increased from $6 to $8 three years ago, to $12 next month and to $14 in 2014, and would hike PATH fares next month from $1.75 to $2.75.

While the proposal has been in the works for months, the Port Authority announced its plan through a press release issued on Friday afternoon — the favorite time to release bad news so that it gets the least attention. It immediately put the toll and fare hikes on a fast track, with nine public hearings to be held in a single day on August 16 and the final vote at the Port Authority board meeting scheduled for August 19.

That would be just over three weeks before the scheduled unveiling of the 9/11 Memorial on the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that brought down the Port Authority’s Twin Towers. The escalating $11 billion cost of the World Trade Center site redevelopment is one of the main reasons for the proposed toll and fare hike, and the Port Authority is already warning that failure to approve the toll hikes could jeopardize completion of the project.

Jersey City Reacts

The local reaction to the planned PATH fare and toll hikes was swift and nearly uniform, with a bevy of Jersey City and Hudson County officials bemoaning the move as being bad for average working families, and a number of activists setting up a protest slated for Monday afternoon in Journal Square.

The protest is being organized by members of Jersey City Peace Movement, Action 21, the JC Asian Merchants Associations, as well as community activists Esther Wintner and Riaz Wahid.

“A 57 percent fare increase on working people will break the backs of many. Unintended consequences will be felt not long after as people continue to struggle through these difficult times,” Wintner said in a statement. “This proposed increase needs to be stopped.”

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy also said the planned hikes would really hurt those in Jersey City who can least afford to pay more each month.

“With the uncertainty of the global economy, it is going to be the average resident who bears the brunt of this,” Healy said in a statement released Friday.

Wahid hit a similar note, pointing out the “tremendous burden” the planned hike would have on commuters.

“[An] around $420 annual increase in monthly pass constitutes two weekly pay checks of additional commuter cost, which is a tremendous burden to someone who is working at minimum wage,” Wahid said in a statement. “There should be no increase whatsoever — especially in this economy.”

Meanwhile, after Wahid circulated news of his group’s Monday protest this weekend to a number of local elected officials and members of the press, the governments of both Hudson County and Jersey City are set to consider resolutions formally opposing the Port Authority’s planned hike. It’s not clear what impact, beyond a symbolic one, such resolutions will have.

The protest is scheduled for today, Monday, August 8 from 5 to 6:30 pm in front of the Journal Square PATH station (near the taxi stand).

The Governors React

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo both have the power to veto the proposed toll hikes, and they signaled their intention to take a hard line with a joint press release.

“While we understand the Port Authority leadership’s concerns about a potential downgrade to its bond rating if toll increases are not instituted, our primary concern with this proposal is its impact on our respective states’ residents and commercial users of the crossings,” the governors said. “As families must carefully and effectively manage their finances at this difficult time, so must government.”

The Port Authority is promising the governors a 10-year, $33 billion capital program that it says would create 167,000 jobs at a time when no new stimulus program is expected from Washington. This would mark a significant increase from the $29.5 billion 10-year capital program in place in 2008 that was reduced to a $24.5 billion program the following year when revenues continued to decline.

But for Christie, this is a particularly tricky call because at least 55 percent of the bridge and tunnel tolls and at least 80 percent of the PATH fares are paid by New Jersey residents. The Port Authority traditionally funds projects equally in the two states, but the massive $11 billion World Trade Center redevelopment that will bring jobs to Lower Manhattan is being regarded as a special case and thus does not count in the 50-50 mix.

Christie has previously said he might support a 25 percent toll increase, which would push the Port Authority’s bridge and tunnel tolls to $10. But that would not come close to providing the revenue needed to support the Port Authority’s 10-year capital plan, including billions of dollars in New Jersey transportation projects that Christie needs the Port Authority to fund so that he does not have to raise the state’s gas tax.

The Port Authority proposal would raise $720 million a year starting in September with the $4 bridge and tunnel toll hike and the $1 PATH increase, plus another $290 million a year starting in 2014, by bringing bridge and tunnel tolls up another $2 to $14.

Transit experts agree that the Port Authority is facing the most serious fiscal crisis in its history due to a series of “unprecedented challenges”:

• A sluggish recovery from the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 that has resulted in fewer motorists coming into New York through Port Authority bridges and tunnels, fewer riders using the PATH trains, fewer passengers flying into Newark, Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, and less cargo coming into the Port of New York and New Jersey.
• Delays in the World Trade Center project have driven up costs from the original $6 billion estimated cost to $11 billion, and the Port Authority is on the hook for the increased cost of a massive redevelopment that critics say is motivated more by unquestioning patriotism than by a realistic assessment of the office real estate market.
• Sharp increase in post 9/11 security costs, which have almost tripled.
• Pressures from New Jersey and New York governors to fund infrastructure projects in the 15-county bistate Port Authority district that the cash-strapped state governments find hard to fund themselves.
• An increase in borrowing costs for the Port Authority because of the collapse of the variable rate real estate market, and a decline in interest revenue because of the historically low rate of interest being paid on the federal Treasury notes that the Port Authority holds.

The Lingering Recession

Revenue from all Port Authority businesses — aviation passengers, port containers unloaded, vehicle traffic on bridges and tunnels and PATH rail ridership — began to drop in 2008 and declined further in 2009 before beginning to climb again last year. However, economic growth has been so sluggish in the “jobless recovery” that followed the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 that revenues in all four of the major areas are expected to be significantly lower than anticipated when the Port Authority put together its original 10-year capital budget three years ago.

According to the Port Authority’s 2011 budget, toll receipts are expected to be 7.5 percent lower, PATH receipts down 12 percent, the number of aviation passengers fewer by 9.2 percent, and port containers down by 11.4 percent. It will take until 2014 for port container traffic, 2015 for air travel and PATH ridership and 2020 for bridge and tunnel traffic to reach the levels originally expected this year.

“When consumer spending is down and unemployment is up, there are fewer goods being shipped and trucked, fewer people commuting to jobs that no longer exist and fewer people flying to destinations that are no longer affordable,” the Port Authority noted in its budget document. “Thus, toll and fare revenue is down, as is revenue derived from flight fees, airport parking and concessions, and container and other Port-related fees, among other facility revenue sources. As a result, projected net revenue from our core business activities over the current ten-year capital plan period has declined by approximately $1.8 billion.”

As U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and other politicians, motorists and rail passenger advocates have pointed out, however, families that have been hard-hit by the recession will find it hard to pay the extra $1,000 a year in bridge and tunnel tolls that the Port Authority is proposing to impose starting next month, and a majority of those people live in New Jersey.

Soaring Costs at World Trade Center Site

Redeveloping the World Trade Center site bigger and better than before as a mark of patriotic spirit has been a basic political tenet, particularly for New York and New Jersey elected officials — so much so that New York Times columnist Joe Nocera acknowledged a year ago that it seemed “sacrilegious” for him to ask questions about the project cost in his article, “In Skyscraper at Ground Zero, Sentiment Trumped Numbers.”

Nevertheless, it seems clear — contrary to years of promises by elected officials — that tollpayers will be subsidizing at least some of the World Trade Center project, partly because long delays in getting the project underway resulted in ever-increasing costs. What was anticipated to be a $9 billion project just a few years ago is now listed at $11 billion, with the Port Authority admittedly on the hook for the cost increases.

The Federal Transit Administration committed $4.25 billion in 2003 toward the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Project, including $2.261 billion for the new underground PATH station and $478 million for the Vehicle Safety Center designed to safeguard the building against terrorist attacks.

But it was not until May 2007 — five years and eight months after the terrorist attack — that insurance companies negotiating with New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s administration agreed to pay $4.55 billion in settlement for the attacks. That was more than the $3.5 billion policy that developer Larry Silverstein had obtained, but not enough to rebuild the towers (Silverstein had originally wanted to pay for only $1.5 billion in insurance coverage, while his bankers wanted him to get $5 billion).

And it was not until March 2010 that Silverstein, the Port Authority and New York officials worked out final financing agreements. Over the years, steel prices and construction costs rose steadily from the original estimates. The cost of the Vehicle Safety Center rose from $478 million to $633 million. Last February, the cost of the winged hub PATH Station at the World Trade Center site jumped another $180 million to $3.44 billion, partly because of the need to use reinforced steel in the station for security purposes. (Overall, the Port Authority estimates that its security costs have jumped from a projected $2 billion to a total of $6 billion.)

The 408-foot spire added to 1 World Trade Center to bring the building to exactly 1,776 feet high added significantly to the cost. Under pressure from politicians and family members of victims, the Port Authority authorized an additional $75 million in construction costs for work changes that will ensure that the 9/11 Memorial will be open in time for the tenth anniversary observance at Ground Zero next month. Because the 9/11 Memorial will rest on the roof of a planned transportation hub that has not yet been completed, the Port Authority changed its plans to build the roof and deck first, then finish the rest of the transportation hub later. The Port Authority and the customers who support its operations have to worry not only about construction overruns, but also the future rental market.

“1 World Trade Center is the most expensive skyscraper ever constructed in the United States, with a price tag currently estimated at $3.3 billion” Nocera noted in his New York Times article. By contrast, the spanking new Bank of America Tower in Midtown Manhattan cost about $2 billion. Just to break even, 1 World Trade Center will require rents far higher than the going rate in Midtown, much less downtown New York, where the building is located and where rents are considerably lower.

“Since 1 World Trade Center is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, it seems fair to assume that any shortfall between the building’s annual rental income and its carrying costs will most likely be borne by the people who pay the toll to cross the George Washington Bridge, or use the Lincoln Tunnel, or ride the PATH rail system.”

Nocera projected that 1 World Trade Center would need to charge $130 per square foot to break even, but the Lower Manhattan real estate market rents at $55 to $60 and no more than $80 per square foot. Furthermore, the vacancy rate for office space in Lower Manhattan is projected to average 14 percent this year, the highest level since 1997, and the 2.6 million square feet of office space in World Trade Center 1 is just the beginning of a total of 10 million square feet planned for the site.

Recently, urban planners have quietly begun to question why the government is building office real estate that the private sector would never finance.

Keeping the Governors Happy

The WTC project is not the only development headache facing the authority. Additional pressure has been exerted by Governors Christie and Cuomo, who, like their predecessors, want the bistate agency they control to finance infrastructure projects that otherwise would have to come out of their state budgets or transportation trust funds.

Despite the Port Authority’s downturn in revenues, increased costs at the World Trade Center site and other fiscal problems, Christie made sure that $1.8 billion of the $3 billion that the Port Authority originally committed to the ARC (Access to the Region’s Core) rail tunnel under the Hudson that he cancelled was redirected to the Pulaski Skyway and other projects on the New Jersey side of the river.

Similarly, Cuomo is making sure that $380 million in Port Authority money is redirected to pay for the last three years of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital program.

“The real question is whose projects get priority if the Port Authority has to cut its capital program significantly because the governors are unwilling to sign off on such a major increase in tolls and PATH fares,” said one mass transit expert who asked not to be identified.
Interest Rates and High Finance

Maybe the markets are trying to tell the Port Authority something.

The Port Authority’s 2011 budget disclosed that the it originally anticipated “over $2.5 billion of funding from Special Project Bond proceeds issued and secured by the anticipated lease revenues to be generated” from 1 World Trade Center. However, “the bond market for financing speculative office space has… evaporated.” For the Port Authority, this means that this form of borrowing has had to be replaced with higher-interest rate taxable debt.

Similarly, the Port Authority had anticipated borrowing $4 billion on the variable rate debt market, which also collapsed, forcing the agency to rely on fixed-rate bonds at interest rates 2.5 percent higher. “Coupled with the previously disclosed construction cost increases at the World Trade Center site that also required the use of higher rate taxable debt” the Port Authority’s debt service costs jumped approximately $1 billion through 2016, according to the budget document.

On the other side of the interest ledger, the Port Authority’s anticipated revenue from its investments in U.S. Treasury notes will be $500 million less over the period of the 10-year capital plan because “since September 2007, the U.S. Federal Funds Rate has dropped from nearly 4.75% to a historic low of between 0% and 0.25%,” the 2011 budget document noted.

Making Your Voice Heard

The Port Authority has scheduled a number of public hearings for August 16, just three days before its Board considers and will potentially vote on the plan.

The hearings will be held at the following times and places:

Newark Liberty International Airport
1 Conrad Road
Building 157, Bay 3
Newark, NJ 07114
973-961-6161
8 am

Port Authority Technical Center
241 Erie Street, Room 212
Jersey City, NJ 07310
201-216-2700
8 am

Port Ivory/Howland Hook
40 Western Ave.
Staten Island, NY 10303
718-330-2950
8 am

Port Authority Bus Terminal
625 8th Avenue
Times Square Conference Room – 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10018
212-502-2240
8 am

George Washington Bridge Administration Building
220 Bruce Reynolds Way
Conference Room
Fort Lee, NJ 07024
201-346-4005
6 pm

Holland Tunnel Administration Building,
13th Street & Provost Street
Conference Room
Jersey City, NJ 07310
201-360-5021
6 pm

George Washington Bridge Bus Station
4211 Broadway
Lower Level Conference Room
New York, NY 10033
201-346-4005
6 pm

John F. Kennedy International Airport
Port Authority Administration
Building 14, 2nd Floor Conference Room
Jamaica, NY 11430
718-244-3501
6 pm

Online Hearing, 2 p.m.
www.panynj.gov

Jon Whiten contributed to this report

Photo: Jon Whiten

Jersey City is one of 15 metropolitan regions selected by NRDC and the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) in the new study, which compares and profiles U.S. cities based on public transit availability and use; household automobile ownership and use; and innovative, sustainable and affordable transportation programs.

The study gives kudos to Jersey City for having “the lowest average household vehicle-miles-traveled for any metropolitan region in the country” and for being transit-accessible.

“More than 98 percent of households, a higher percentage than in anywhere else in the United States, have access to transportation, meaning that they are located within a quarter-mile of a bus stop or within a half-mile of a rail station,” according to the CNT.

With such access to transit, perhaps it is no surprise that car-ownership rates in Jersey City are lower than just about anywhere else in the country.

“Along with neighboring New York City, it’s one of only two metropolitan regions in the nation with an average car ownership of less than one per household,” NRDC’s Mary Logan Barmeyer writes. “In fact, only 60 percent of residents own or have access to a car.”

The other regions cited by the Smarter Cities team were Boston, Boulder, Bremerton (Washington), Champaign-Urbana (Illinois), Chicago, the District of Columbia, Honolulu, Lincoln (Nebraska), New Haven, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco and Yolo (California).

“Jersey City is fast becoming a model of leadership, as Mayor Healy has set the tone and city policy that auto dependency is anti-growth,” city spokesperson Jennifer Morrill tells NRDC. “The city’s growth and development would clog the streets with traffic if it were not based on low auto utilization and high mass-transit use.”

For more information on the study, including city profiles and methodology, click here.

Elsewhere in local transportation news, Streetfilms recently highlighted the Jersey City’s use of Transit-Oriented Development in a short video:

Moving Beyond the Automobile: Transit Oriented Development from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Photo: Jon Whiten

The measure, which cleared the legislature in January, would extend tax credits to commercial and residential projects under the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Act and the New Jersey Economic Stimulus Act of 2009 to mixed-use projects of a certain size.

In 2008, the state passed the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Act as a mechanism to stimulate economic development in New Jersey’s cities. Under the initial bill, a business can take advantage of tax credits if it builds or leases office space and creates jobs near urban train stations.

Businesses must employ at least 250 people and invest at least $50 million in a facility within a half-mile of rail stations to be eligible, and the program is only applicable in a small handful of municipalities, including Jersey City. A tenant can also be allowed credits if it occupies space in the facility that proportionally represents at least $17.5 million of the capital investment in the facility, it employs at least 250 persons in the facility and the facility’s owner has invested at least $50 million in the overall project.

And under the New Jersey Economic Stimulus Act of 2009, a developer can receive tax credits of up to 20 percent of its capital investment in a residential project located in an urban transit hub. This credit is subject to the same $50 million project investment requirement as the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Act.

Under the bill vetoed by the governor, both of these tax credits would be extended to any mixed-use commercial/residential project in which a developer invests at least $50 million total, and at least $17.5 million in each component of the project. The change would give developers another strong incentive to invest in areas like Journal Square, where the long-term redevelopment plan calls for plenty of mixed-use development.

In his veto message, Christie generally praised mixed-use developments, saying they “can offer many benefits to the community in urban areas.” But he says the affordable housing requirement in the bill is too high, and is asking the legislature to cut it in half.

The law governing urban transit hub projects currently says they must set aside 20 percent of their housing stock for low- and moderate-income families. Christie says he will only approve this extension of tax credits if the bill’s sponsors allow an exception to that standing law, and ask developers to set aside just 10 percent of housing stock for low- and moderate-income families. As a rationale, the governor claims there is plenty of affordable housing to begin with in Jersey City and other urban areas.

“The urban centers covered under this legislation have generally provided an abundance of affordable housing and are in dire need of economic revitalization,” Christie says in his veto message. “Therefore, I am returning this legislation with the recommendation that it be amended to provide that urban transit hub projects should not be required to set aside more than 10 percent of their housing stock as affordable housing.”

The legislation was sponsored by Hudson County Assemblyman Ruben Ramos as well as several others. Alexander Habib, who is chief of staff for Ramos, tells us that the Assemblyman “looks forward to working with his colleagues in the legislature on meeting the governor’s recommendations” for the bill.

“We understand the Governor has concerns over the fiscal impact of this bill, as well as many others,” Habib says. “But consistent with his comments yesterday during the budget address, the governor is willing to approve legislation that truly encourages companies to bring jobs to New Jersey and encourage innovation.”

Chris Christie’s Veto Message on Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Bill

- Czaplicki Resigns from Sewerage Commission: The Journal reports that Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission (PVSC) Vice Chairman Carl Czaplicki — who is the Director of Jersey City’s Department of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce — mandating that city employees work a minimum of 25 years for Jersey City in order to collect city-paid health benefits. JCI will have more on the vote and all the Council action today.

- “Excess” Snow Staying in JC: The city will not take state officials up on their offer to remove snow and dump it into state waters. City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill told the Journal that doing so would be a “big operation,” requiring overtime and other expenses.

- Ferry Fire: A New York Waterway ferry caught fire shortly after leaving the dock at Edgewater yesterday morning, but the two-person crew managed to get the boat back to the dock before any of the 25 passengers were injured.

- Freeholder Dublin Named to Association Post: County Freeholder Jeff Dublin, who represents parts of Jersey City, was named Vice Chairman of the New Jersey Association of Counties this week.

- “Mayor of Monmouth Street” Honored: The intersection of Monmouth and 5th Streets is now known as Louis Calamito Way, thanks to a City Council vote last night. Calamito, a World War II veteran and Bronze Star recipient, was a lifelong resident of the street.

- No Sour Grapes: Jersey City’s Greggy Soriano, who competed on but did not win the TLC reality series Cake Boss: The Next Great Baker, has some words of encouragement for his winning opponent Dana Herbert.

Today’s Best Bets:

Due to the snowy conditions, it’s probably best to call ahead to confirm that events are happening.

- NJCU’s new Flesh Art exhibition opens today; earlier this week we caught up with curator José Rodeiro. For the community-minded, the Hamilton Park Neighborhood Association is hosting a blood drive today from 3pm to 9pm — each donor receives a pair of NJ Nets tickets. Tonight, the Keyhole features an eclectic mix of local acts: Tra$h eXeCUTioner, The Darkz, Nobuki Takamen and Junestar Blackman. The action there starts at 9pm.

In Statewide News:

- Winter Storm: More snow blanketed the metro area last night, leaving some areas reporting 19 inches of accumulation. Transit services are affected and several school districts are closed or calling delayed openings. Road traffic is beleaguered by disabled vehicles, several accidents and at least one downed tree. Flights at Newark Liberty International Airport are experiencing delays.

- PVSC Corruption Is Not News: Gov. Chris Christie flushed out individual Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners this week, but according to PolitickerNJ “the authority has long been known as an entrenched patronage mill built on the confluences of money, political loyalty and influence.”

- Cell Phones and Mass-Transit Operating: A bill prohibiting public transportation operators from using a wireless telephone or electronic communication device while their vehicles are moving has been signed into law.

- State Supreme Court Rules Against DYFS: In a unanimous decision yesterday, the state Supreme Court ruled that the state Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) did not have sufficient evidence to remove a teenager from her father and stepmother’s home in 2008, despite reports to the agency that the parents were slapping the teenager and taking earnings from her paycheck.

- Assembly Republicans Shake Up Budget Committee: Less than a month before Gov. Christie will lay out his state budget plan, Republicans in the Assembly are shaking up their budget team.

- New Jersey Bankruptcy “Not an Option”: Gov. Christie isn’t looking to declare New Jersey bankrupt even as Washington policymakers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy.

- Federal Report Names Garrett and Kean Jr.: According to a new report by the federal Office of Special Counsel, White House officials were using taxpayer time to focus on the 2006 campaigns for New Jersey Rep. Scott Garrett and state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., breaking laws against such political activity. Neither Garrett nor Kean Jr. were accused of any wrongdoing.

The streamlining of the train routes leaves the light rail with two distinct, but overlapping lines on weekends and holidays: between Hoboken Terminal and 22nd Street/Bayonne and between Tonnelle Avenue and West Side Avenue.

Trains originating at Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen, which come through Hoboken at 9th and 2nd Streets, serving many Heights residents, will no longer go to Hoboken Terminal. Instead, all weekend and holiday trains on that line will go first to Pavonia/Newport, before continuing on the southern rail spur out to West Side Avenue.

For a Heights resident heading to New York City on the 6th Avenue PATH line, that means a slightly longer trip (one minute longer, according to timetables) from 2nd Street to Pavonia/Newport than the one to Hoboken. But more importantly, because of the PATH train’s weekend schedule, that rider would then have to come back through Hoboken Terminal for a stop before making his or her way into New York City.

The change also means that anyone traveling from the West Side Avenue, Martin Luther King Drive or Garfield Avenue stops to Hoboken will have to change trains at Pavonia/Newport.

If you have questions about the service changes, you can call NJ Transit customer service at 973-275-5555.

- Medical Contract at Jail Hits Another Snag: Approval of a new five-year medical services contract at the Hudson County jail stalled once again last night at the Hudson County freeholders’ monthly caucus.

- Funding for ARC Tunnel Close: NJ Transit officials say the federal government is close to officially committing $3 billion for a mass transit tunnel linking Manhattan and New Jersey.

- New Walkway Open at LSP: A newly rehabilitated 1000-foot walkway has opened up along the along the south side of Liberty State Park.

- Hurley & the Hall: Longtime St. Anthony’s basketball coach Bob Hurley is set to be inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame this Friday.

- Shopping Spree for Back-to-School: Target teamed up with the Salvation Army yesterday to give 20 children from Jersey City an $80 gift card to spend at the retailer’s 14th Street store during a three-hour shopping spree.

Today’s Best Bets:

- The Feast! Tonight is the first night of the annual Festa Italiana on 6th Street in Downtown Jersey City; the festival runs through Sunday. Tonight’s featured band is The B Street Band, who specialize in Springsteen covers (6 to 11 pm). Over at the Grove Street PATH plaza, the Subway Surfers, WyldLife and Radio Exiles play a free Groove on Grove show (6 pm), and Club H hosts an opening reception for Habib Ayat’s new exhibition, Colors Interaction (6:30 pm).

In Statewide News:

- Christie Will Apply for Federal Education $ After All: Gov. Christie will apply for $268 million in federal education aid passed yesterday by Congress that would provide enough money to save an estimated 3,900 teaching jobs in New Jersey. Earlier in the week, his spokesperson had raised questions about whether or not New Jersey would pursue the funds. MORE from NJ Spotlight.

- Mental Health Law to See Delay: The Christie administration says the state will delay indefinitely implementing a law that would give families a greater say in determining whether their seriously mentally ill loved ones may be ordered to attend outpatient treatment.

- State May Put Unused Bonds to Debt Payments: New Jersey may use $1 billion of unspent general-obligation bond funds to pay down existing debt, under a plan by Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff to reduce state costs.

- Lenders Take Over Xanadu: A group of lenders says it has taken control of the Xanadu retail and entertainment development at the Meadowlands in an effort to steer the stalled project to completion.

- Baykeeper Removes Oyster Beds: The NY/NJ Baykeeper withdrew the last oysters from its experimental reef in the Raritan Bay last night and put them in temporary storage, although the mollusks eventually may be trashed. The DEP in June ordered the Baykeeper project and about a dozen smaller projects removed from polluted coastal waters because it does not have the manpower to patrol them against poachers who would steal and market the tainted oysters.

- Radon in the Water: For more than a decade, state and federal governments have held off in regulating how much radon should be allowed in drinking water. The state Department of Environmental Protection is now analyzing data as it considers its next step.

- North Jersey’s Food Pantries: Food pantries are still seeing increased demand year-over-year, as the recession drags on.

- Pipe-Repairing Technology: A new pipe-repairing technology currently being tested in Somerville could save New Jersey’s water companies millions of dollars.

- The ‘Fork and Screen’ Experience: The new “Fork and Screen” entertainment model, which allows moviegoers to recline in a La-Z-Boy and dine on a three-course menu offering food and even beer, is coming to three AMC Theaters in central New Jersey.

No new date has been set for the meeting. In the meantime, public comment is currently being accepted in writing. You can send comments to Laurie Cotter, deputy county administrator, 567 Pavonia Ave., Jersey City, NJ 07305. The county asks that you send a copy of your comments to the DEP as well — New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Green Acres Program, Bureau of Legal Services and Stewardship, P.O. Box 412, Trenton, NJ 08625-0412.

The Greenway Alliance is also urging supporters to reach out to local members of Congress and the US Department of Transportation, whose leader Ray LaHood earlier this week called for parity in transportation policy and said the federal government will begin uging state departments of transportation to “treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.”

Last February, the City Council tabled the Journal Square Redevelopment Plan, a long-term visioning project covering a roughly 244-acre swath of land in and around Journal Square.

Now a slimmed-down proposal is back in the legislative pipeline, with the Planning Board set to review the Journal Square Core Redevelopment Plan this Tuesday evening.

The plan essentially calls for high-density, transit-oriented development in the immediate Journal Square area, and prohibits surburban-style features like surface parking, drive-through facilities and “gas stations, service stations, auto repair, auto body shops, and other automobile related uses.” As the name implies, the Core Redevelopment Plan covers only the core of the Journal Square area — the one block bounded by Summit Avenue, Sip Avenue, Kennedy Boulevard and Pavonia Avenue. (It does note that “this plan will be incorporated into a future Greater Journal Square Plan covering a broader area approximating the walking distance to the station.”)

“It would now appear to be appropriate for the city to take a more proactive approach to redevelopment in this area, so as to bring the area into greater compliance with the recommendations of the [city's] master plan,” the draft proposal, dated Feb. 3, reads. “The Master Plan calls for ‘station areas’ around Jersey City’s mass transit facilities to be up-zoned to include higher density residential, neighborhood retail, restaurants and other uses compatible with a mixed use transit oriented station area. In addition, parking requirements are to be reduced ‘to capitalize on the availability of high quality mass transit’ and to increase building coverage, floor-area-ratios, and a residential density, which can be supported near transit facilities.”

It calls for redevelopment via four means: The “retention and rehabilitation of sound compatible structures,” encouraging private developers to “assemble into redevelopment parcels the vacant and
underutilized land now in scattered and varied ownership,” constructing new structures and providing public infrastructure to support and service the new development.

In what is perhaps a nod to the eminent domain fears that drove much opposition to the larger plan last year, the new draft plan explicitly states that the redevelopment “shall be achieved without the means of condemnation.”

Our favorite part of the plan?

“For all structures, bike parking is required. A bike storage room, located in a convenient and accessible location to the front entry of the building with room for 1 bike space per bedroom is required.”

Read the proposed plan for yourself here; you can check out the larger tabled plan here.

The Planning Board meets Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 5:30 pm in the City Council Chambers at City Hall (280 Grove St.).