Did they get suckered by Comrade Casino, the republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief? No surprise there.

that NJ Governor Chris Christie pulled out of the deal AND kept the federal funds given to NJ for that project.

And BTW, any doubt that Trump and Congress are punishing NJ and NY, blue states for not getting with their program?

He gets to punish blue states by pulling out, he gets to punish nj for electing a dem gov, and he gets to screw ny with a message of more to come if they file state charges against the royals.......

...who shortly thereafter turned on him for saying a few nice things about Obama (and getting a hug) after Sandy, where the only ones holding up Federal disaster relief were his fellow wingnuts in red states.

He has a track record of pandering to people who dump on him, while the rest of us get hosed.

Last edited Sun Dec 31, 2017, 12:43 PM - Edit history (1)

too cover budget deficits so he could claim not raising taxes and having a balanced budget. NJ has a gas tax that funds a highway fund. Rejecting the deal gave him a sludge fund of money that he would not otherwise have had.

I agree that attacking Obama was another plus AND it attacked liberal Senator Lautenberg, who chaired the transportation sub committee of the Commerce committee and he was instrumental in getting this in one of the 2009 bills. It was the largest infrastructure bill in the country. It was absolutely needed to improve traffic between NY and NY and it would have had a big impact on the economy in those countries.

...because if not, it's nice to see the year close with an unintentionally-more-accurate typo. That was too dirty for it to simply be slush.

Although, that budget hole-covering was part of the pandering to TPRepubs I mentioned. They were the ones foaming the most about a gas-tax hike.

I agree that it was pandering, but the no gas tax part of the Republican party was bigger than the tea party part.

True of every state, right?

The point was he did wanted to KEEP the money there to avoid tax increases in the future rather than spend it for something that clearly was needed. My guess is that it was not just the NJ tea party he wanted to impress, but he was positioning to be the 2016 nominee. Without Bridgegate, it could have happened. He won big in a blue state and he would have argued that he stayed true to republican values - like not raising taxes.

He also pulled out of REGI, the east coast states greenhouse gas initiative.

10/90 split for road projects. I can't tell you how mad I am when projects like the I-99 corridor move forward in my state but the roads I travel on in the Philly area languish in poor repair or undersized causing me to spend twice as much time getting home. Not to mention I pay for state police coverage for areas that don't have local police protection.

If we ever get control of any of the purse strings I'd love to see us up the local contribution to get federal funding. You don't want to pay taxes then fine don't have your hand out for federal money.

works for NY transit system. I believe part of that funding was for amtrak repairs in the tunnels/Penn Station that have caused (correct me if I'm wrong) 2 derailments in NY last year. Amtrak is responsible for some of those rails that are crumbling and old.

NY gets 79 cents back from the federal government for every dollar put in. I assume it will be much less with the tax bill. It's disgraceful that Trump, a NYer, claimed he would concentrate on infrastructure, roads, bridges and rails, and has taken back that promise (although expected, it's still shocking). So that rich people can get big tax cuts??

Don't come back to NY Trump. Just don't. Unless it's behind bars.

capacity is already lower than it should be.

"The project would have funded necessary repairs to an Amtrak tunnel between New Jersey and New York City,
as well as help fix damaged dual-tunnel conduit and rebuild New Jersey’s Portal Bridge."

I saw that. Wasn't sure if that included repairs at Penn. There were actually 4 NJ transit derailments at Penn station in 2017. They were all rails maintained (or NOT) by Amtrak.

If people dont use public transportation .. they are comfortable destroying it. The rail infrastructure between NY and NJ is rotten. Everyday it some issue or other. There are delays going and out. Wasted productivity and missed dinners with families.

What the fuck is wrong with Republicans!!!

Good luck in 2018

and he is why this project is dead. Fucker should be in jail.

His bill is killing NYC homeowners. And now this.
My hunch is NYC realtors are against it because they think
it will hurt real estate values in the city.
Now I wonder if NYC realtors secretly influenced Christy's earlier decision to
veto a tunnel.

Which I'd imagine in the US's biggest RE conglomerate is HQ'd in New Jersey ... just an observation.

I do some computer work for them actually.