CAMDEN — The sorry state of the New Jersey's roads, rails and bridges will be the focus of a hearing in Camden this morning by the state Assembly Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities Committee, which is meeting for the first time since its chairman proposed hiking the state gas tax by nearly $300 a year for the average motorist.

A bill introduced last week by state Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) would raise the gas tax by at least 25 cents a gallon, costing the average New Jersey motorist what he said would be "80 cents a day," based on the per-capita fuel consumption. That's $292 a year.

Wisniewski said the increase would raise an additional $1.25 billion a year for the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund, which pays for state projects and provides aid counties and municipalities, but is projected to run out of cash next year for anything other than debt payments.



"It really has to be new, robust revenue," Wisniewski said during a meeting with The Star-Ledger editorial board this week.



The bill, A-3886, would target the state's petroleum products gross receipts tax, now levied at a rate of 4 cents per gallon on wholesale purchases of gasoline by distributors at refineries. An annual minimum of $200 million of the proceeds of the petroleum tax is now constitutionally dedicated to the trust fund. But Wisniewski is also calling for a constitutional amendment to raise that minimum to $1.45 billion, for a $1.25 billion increase in trust fund revenues.

Wisniewski said the amendment would also containing spending controls to insure the trust fund remained solvent.

The legislation would not only raise the petroleum tax, it would change the way it is calculated. Instead of straight cents-per-gallon formula, the bill would charge distributors 9 percent of the retail price of gasoline. Revenues under the new calculation could rise with rising gas prices, but the bill sets August 2014 gas prices as a minimum baseline for calculating the tax, guarding against fall prices.

That works out to 29 cents per gallon -- a 25-cent increase -- based on the August average price of $3.30 a gallon, according to newjerseygasprices.com.

Wisniewski's bill would not change the state motor fuels tax, 10.5-cent-per-gallon levy on retail purchases of gasoline by motorists at the pump, all of which -- or $516 million in the current fiscal year -- is dedicated to the trust fund.

Wisniewski acknowledged that motorists would ultimately be the ones footing the bill for the petroleum tax hike, not distributors, because wholesale fuel taxes are routinely passed on to station owners, who will then pass them on to motorists in the price at the pump.

The practice is so universal that the American Petroleum Institute combines states' wholesale and retail fuel taxes when publishing comparative figures for the "gas taxes" charged by the 50 states. For example, New Jersey's 14.5-cent-per-gallon gas tax, the second lowest after Alaska's, is actually a composite of its 10.5-cent motor fuels tax and its 4-cent petroleum tax.

If Wisniewski's bill were adopted today, the state's combined "gas tax" would rise to about 40 cents a gallon.

Like any legislation, Wisniewski said his bill was "a work in progress," that could be amended during the legislative process. A separate bill has been introduced by Sen. Ray Lesniak that would raise the gas tax by 5 cents a year for thee years.

Today's 10 a.m. hearing at the Camden County College Theater is not for a vote on Wisniewsi's bill, but rather is the third in an ongoing

on the Transportation Trust Fund, with a focus on the need to replace or repair the state's aging, heavily traveled highways, bridges and transit facilities.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 Report Card for America's Infrastructure said 66 percent of New Jersey's roads were in poor or mediocre condition, while 36 percent of its bridges were structurally deficient or obsolete.

A report in September by the California-based Reason Foundation ranked New Jersey's highway system the nation's most expensive to operate and maintain, and placed the state 48th nationwide for cost-effectiveness of its highway system, that is, the relatively poor condition of its roads compared with their high cost.

The Reason report outraged motorists who would have to pay an increased in the gas tax, which currently totals 14.5 cents per gallon and is the second lowest in the nation, after Alaska's.

Despite potholed roads that transportation advocates say cost New Jerseyans $600 a year in repairs, polls indicate that most residents oppose raising the tax to fund repairs. The gas tax remains one of the most politically sensitive subjects in Garden State politics, and has not been raised since 1988, when the motor fuels tax went up 2 cents.

The trust fund, which is spending $1.6 billion in the current 2015 fiscal year, also receives a portion of the state's 7-percent sales tax, amounting to $517.5 million.

In addition, the fund has relied in recent years on money from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, including a $375 million contribution this year. However, that Port Authority money, totaling $1.8 billion, and will run out next year, after it was originally raised by the agency for a trans-Hudson rail tunnel cancelled by Gov. Chris Christie in 2010.



Christie has resisted raising the gas tax since taking office in 2010, but the transportation funding situation now has become so dire, and the need to fix the state's roads so apparent, that the govenor and his transportation commissioner, Jamie Fox, have refused to rule out a gas tax hike.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow hin on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.