Chris Christie Signs 4 Bills Into Law, Including $400M For Transportation

Gov. Chris Christie signed four bills into law providing hundreds of millions of dollars for transportation work and changes to a tax law.

Christie today signed into law S-3076, which allocates $400 million from the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) for road and bridge projects and transit safety system and technology upgrades in the current fiscal year ending June 30.

Christie also signed Senate Bill No. 2347, which would allow certain municipalities to impose and collect a payroll tax of up to 1 percent of employer's payroll.

Specifically, the law permits Newark to impose, by ordinance, an employer payroll tax at a rate of up to 1 percent of an employer’s payroll. This bill amends the "Local Tax Authorization Act" to allow Newark to raise revenues through a payroll tax.

The TTF bill, meanwhile, is being financed through last year's 23-cent gas tax increase, the first gas tax increase in 28 years. Christie, who helped make the tax deal last year, said having updated roads and bridges and safe transit systems that utilize state-of-the-art technology "is not only vital to protect drivers and riders but to ensure the stability and expansion of New Jersey’s economy."

“This $400 million supplemental appropriation will expedite projects this year to improve the safety and state of good repair of our roads, bridges and public transit system, with the local aid portion also serving as direct property tax relief," Christie said in a press release.

The TTF law allocates $260 million for the State Department of Transportation and $140 million for New Jersey Transit to begin upgrades as soon as possible. The supplemental funding will allow projects that already are in an advanced stage of design to go to bid this spring and begin construction as soon as possible. Projects will include resurfacing work, bridge repairs and safety enhancements.

“We’ve received good economic news over the past few weeks with our unemployment rate falling to 4.4 percent in February, our lowest rate since October 2007 and it is important we continue that momentum,” Christie said. “These supplemental funds will put more people to work on vital infrastructure investment projects for the benefit of residents, commuters, and commerce that flows through our transportation networks.”

Christie announced this week that he has taken action on the following legislation:

BILL SIGNINGS:

• S-3076 (Sweeney, Oroho, Turner, Prieto, Vainieri Huttle, Muoio), which allocates $400 million from the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) for road and bridge projects and transit safety system and technology upgrades in the current fiscal year ending June 30.
• S-2347wGR/A-3723 (Rice, Ruiz/Pintor Marin, Giblin) - Permits certain municipalities to impose and collect payroll tax of up to 1 percent of employer's payroll
• A-312wGR/S-2557 (Singleton, Lampitt, Quijano, Pintor Marin, Wimberly, Downey/Cruz-Perez, Stack) - Requires Division of Local Government Services to include certain property tax information on division’s web page
• A-756wGR/S-2046 (Moriarty, Coughlin, Mukherji, Benson/Cruz-Perez) - Regulates use of motor vehicle payment assurance devices

Patch file photo