Mike Davis

@byMikeDavis

TRENTON – The American Society of Civil Engineers gave a “D+” grade to New Jersey’s infrastructure, including transportation, waste and water management, in its annual report card, one of only four states scoring in the “D” range.

The report card grades infrastructure – including transportation and waste management – on capacity, condition, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, resilience and innovation. In all but one category, New Jersey received a grade of a C+ or below.

“This deters businesses from locating here. It has an economic impact and ripple effect on our budget,” Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, D-Gloucester, said. “What this really is about, more than anything else, is an attempt to create a competitive environment for New Jersey to succeed.

“This isn’t about whether or not to create revenue or overhaul an outdated tax policy. It’s to make New Jersey competitive, to make New Jersey a destination point,” Greenwald said.

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While the state didn’t fail any of the engineers’ 13 categories, it received a “D-“ grade for transit and levee infrastructure.

Over the last 10 years, ridership on NJ Transit, PATH and PATCO lines increased by 16 percent, according to the report. About 11 percent of New Jersey commuters mass transit to get to work.

“We’ve seen that number grow over the past 10 years, causing significant strain on the system,” said Michael Sears, co-chairman of the report card. “As people want more options for how they travel, transit will become increasingly more important. Yet, right now there isn’t dedicated funding for capital investment, operations or maintenance – causing great uncertainty for our transit system.”

And according to the report card, all but one of the levees inspected by the American Society of Civil Engineers were graded “minimally acceptable” or unacceptable.

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The report card comes two weeks before the next fiscal year begins, when the state’s $1.6 billion Transportation Trust Fund will only have enough funding to pay for debt service.

No money would be left for road projects, bridge repairs or construction or mass transit capital funding.

“Our biggest edge is our location and everyone around us has figured it out. They’re making investments and we’re not,” Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said.

Two bills in the Senate and Assembly were introduced Thursday that would renew and increase funding for the TTF by raising either the petroleum gross receipts or gasoline tax.

The result would be an increase of about 21 to 23 cents per gallon, bringing New Jersey’s gasoline tax up to 37.5 cents per gallon, the seventh-highest in the U.S.

Gov. Chris Christie said he wasn't sold on either plan, reiterating his call for "tax fairness" in any proposal. As it stands, both plans include a four-year phaseout of the estate tax -- a trade-off Christie has advocated for in the past.

"The current package as constituted, both from the tax increase and the tax cut side, does not represent tax fairness for people of New Jersey," he said at a Thursday press conference.

Sweeney, an iron worker by trade, said he’d seen failing infrastructure first-hand, working on railroad bridges that he was afraid to even work on: “It scared the hell out of me that people were actually going over it,” he said of one railroad bridge in Edison.

“We have people fixing a beam here when there’s a stress fracture over there. That’s how tight we are with funding,” Sweeney said. “We need to make our investments now with funding now. If we lose our edge, it will affect our economy.”

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Mike Davis: 732-643-4223; mdavis@gannettnj.com