Recently Gov Christie in NJ put the cabash on a train tunnel running from Jersey to New York. It cost too much and was expected to have a budget overrun of $5 billion. Taxpayers simply can not afford that, he said.
Wait, say his critics that project would create 6,000 jobs and take cars off the road. Besides, the cost overrun is exaggerated, the cost overrun is ONLY $1 billion and that’s years in the future (why worry about that now- so is your retirement years in the future, but hey, why worry about that now either?). New Jersey hasn’t worried about $150 billion in unfunded pension and retiree medical liability, why start worrying about long-term costs now?
See, you really can afford anything if you come up with enough reasons to spend that money, except of course a flu shot, for that you need health insurance to pay it all.
The political mind is a thing to behold.
Why can’t New Jersey taxpayers afford the tunnel? Let me provide a close to home example.
I am reading the luxury home section of the Wall Street Journal for October 15. There is a featured home 20 mile northwest of Chicago. It is selling for $1.6 million, is 7,100 square feet with 100 feet of lake frontage and a private beach. The house was built in 2008 and has 20 rooms including five baths, a movie theater, sauna, wine cellar and boat dock. The property taxes are $12,520.
By pure coincidence I pay the same taxes on my home in NJ, but that is the extent of the similarity. My house was built in 1929, is 1900 square feet without a master suite, family room, large kitchen or finished basement and not a walk in closet in sight. And, my house sits on a 50 x 120 foot lot.
New Jersey’s state and local taxes are the highest in the nation and it’s income tax is near the top as well. So, should NJ taxpayers take on the added risk of billions of dollars in cost overruns because …well for any reason?
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- Steve Malanga: Christie Is Right About the Hudson River Big Dig (online.wsj.com)
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