New Jersey May Get $128 Million Refund From U.S. for Canceled Rail Tunnel
New Jersey will get a refund of almost half the $271 million it owes the federal government for canceling a proposed commuter-rail tunnel once the money is repaid, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.
LaHood agreed to return $128 million to replenish other New Jersey transportation accounts depleted to finance the tunnel, according to a letter to U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, which the Democratic lawmaker released today. In the letter, LaHood defended the Federal Transit Administration’s right to recoup the U.S. aid New Jersey spent on the aborted project.
The board of New Jersey Transit, the agency that was in charge of building the tunnel, voted Dec. 9 to hire the Washington law firm Patton Boggs LLP at $485 an hour to contest the federal bill.
Governor Chris Christie, a first-term Republican, killed the 8.8-mile (14-kilometer) tunnel on Oct. 27 because he said the state couldn’t afford $5 billion in potential extra costs. The tunnel was projected to double commuter capacity in and out of Manhattan from New Jersey,
New Jersey spent about $600 million on the project, including the $271 million the federal government wants back, state officials said.
“The FTA is being fair and equitable in its treatment of New Jersey Transit,” LaHood said in the letter, which was dated yesterday. The contents of the letter were reported earlier by the Associated Press.
Other Projects
If New Jersey Transit repays the money in full, the federal Transportation Department will transfer $128 million back into the state’s Congestion Mitigation Air Quality account, allowing funds earmarked for the tunnel to be used on other projects, LaHood said.
Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Christie, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Lautenberg said he was pleased with LaHood’s proposal.
“I will continue to look for other ways to ease the fallout from the governor’s ill-advised decision,” he said in an e-mailed statement.
About 56 percent of residents supported Christie’s decision to cancel the tunnel, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll taken from Dec. 2 through Dec. 6.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dunstan McNichol in Trenton, New Jersey, at dmcnichol@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page