The iconic Wildwood tram cars are shortening their travel routes for the rest of the season due to damage found on the Wildwood boardwalk — about a week after Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed a measure that would have allocated $56 million in state funds for the Jersey Shore town to repair the aging infrastructure.

The yellow tram cars, which have been running on the boardwalk since 1949, typically transport passengers between 16th Street in North Wildwood down to Cresse Avenue in Wildwood. However, since the discovery of damaged concrete supports under the boardwalk, the tramcars have been forced to end its route a few blocks short of its terminus until the end of September and operate up to the Wildwood Convention Center after a recent inspection found damage under the wooden structure.

Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. said city officials are getting together and looking for ways to repair the damage and where to find funding.

“Our engineer is doing some cost analysis for us for a quick fix option,” Troiano Jr. said. “We know what the long-term fix is. We just want to see how much that would cost and where we would get the money.”

News of the damage found on the boardwalk comes after Murphy issued an absolute veto Aug. 23 on S1364, a bill that would have appropriated $4 million a year through the 2033 fiscal year to the Greater Wildwoods Tourism Improvement and Development Authority. The money would have been used for boardwalk maintenance, reconstruction, and repair, and construction. Murphy also used a line-item veto to remove language added to the budget bill that would given up to $4 million for boardwalk repairs from excess funds deposited into the state-owned real property fund during the year.

In his explanation of the veto, Murphy said elements of the bill would be “unconstitutional and unenforceable” due to an appropriation clause in the state’s Constitution.

The veto could be overridden with a two-thirds majority in the House and the Senate (27 in the Senate and 54 in the Assembly). The bill initially passed with 26 votes in the Senate and 50 in the Assembly.

The Wildwood mayor said he was not happy with the decision to veto the bill, feeling as if he and the city are “collateral damage.”

“I am very disappointed and dismayed that the governor would totally disregard one of the largest attractions in the state,” Troiano Jr. said. “There is a lot of revenue that is generated from the boardwalk. I want to see the state make up that revenue. Maybe we should just keep our money and not send it north.”

One of the bills primary sponsors, Sen. Bob Andrzejczak, said he is frustrated because if the bill was not vetoed, work would have begun immediately after Labor Day to make the needed Boardwalk repairs.

“Here we are where it is a safety issue now because the boardwalk is crumbling from underneath,” Andrzejczak said. “The boardwalk has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the state general fund over many years. It is an investment that we need to be putting money into. When you think about the small businesses and everything that’s at stake in the city of Wildwood, it is all riding on the boardwalk for people to go to and enjoy.”

Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) previously said the governor issued the veto as a retaliatory measure against Democrats who did not support the governor’s view for a millionaire’s tax, a claim Murphy.

“I do not know if it is falling on deaf ears because he just does not see the importance or the value of what Wildwood provides and doesn’t see it as a sound investment, or if it has to do with the feud between himself and South Jersey leadership, mostly the Senate President,” the Senator said. “Hopefully it is the other way where we can at least have the conversation, but if it is a battle of leadership, then you have people and a city suffering over a petty feud.”

Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews or on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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