TRENTON, N.J. – Federal pandemic funds have dried up and the deficit and rate hike that Republican legislators have warned about has finally arrived. NJ Transit announced Monday a 15% fare increase effective July 1 to close its predicted $119 million budget gap. Riders can expect subsequent, indefinite 3% annual increases starting next July as the agency’s projected budget deficits balloon to nearly $1 billion by 2026.
Assemblyman Christian Barranco, a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee, criticized Gov. Phil Murphy and Democrat legislators for keeping the failing agency afloat using federal Covid relief funds and other dedicated state agency funds, knowing the artificial boost was delaying the inevitable fiscal cliff NJ Transit is racing toward.
“Murphy’s promise to fix NJ Transit ‘even if it kills him’ has proven to be as reliable as the train and bus service,” Barranco (R-Morris) said. “He’s a lame duck governor whose eyes are set on national political ambitions, for himself and his wife, that he built on the backs of New Jersey’s taxpayers. He stuck regular working folks with the bill, like usual.”
Government lockdowns during the pandemic decimated NJ Transit’s ridership; although it has improved, ridership remains more than 20% below what it was pre-lockdown. Even before 2020, the agency struggled to attract and keep staff and maintain its aging fleet of 2,221 buses, 1,231 trains and 93 light rail vehicles serving 253 bus routes and 12 rail lines. A record number of equipment breakdowns led to mass train cancellations and stranded commuters in 2021. Remember those?
This happened despite a total $4.4 billion in federal Covid relief funds to fill its budget gaps starting in 2020. Even with this emergency and its regular federal and state aid, NJ Transit faces a structural deficit—when spending outpaces revenues—for the fiscal year in 2025. Even still, plans for a 25-year lease for a new corporate headquarters to the tune of $120 million in repairs over six years at 2 Gateway Plaza in Newark are underway.
Meanwhile, some 5-day-a-week commuters will see their trip expenses go up more than $800 the first year, Barranco said.
“Governor Murphy has essentially robbed Peter to pay Paul, and now Peter is out of money too, but he’s spending as if he still has it,” Barranco added. “Democrats were warned for years, and now the rate hikes are here, and all they can do is put out statements of faux-outrage over where we find ourselves not-so-suddenly. It’s too little, too late for the people struggling to make ends meet. Let’s start legislating for what the people need as opposed to legislating for feel good points or satisfying some foolish news cycle.”