1/17/2008

NJ Budget woes are Solved!

There is a new and improved focus on generating revenue for the state of NJ. On the NJ Turnpike between exit 11 and 14, there is an HOV lane that is restricted at certain times for the day (6-9am going Northbound and 4-7pm going Southbound). This lane is restricted to those with 3 or more persons in the vehicle, all buses and hybrid vehicles (because NJ is a liberal state that wants to control it's citizen's behavior).

Since NJ is a commuter state, very few people live near where they work, and even fewer people are able to carpool, thus only buses, an occasional Hybrid and families on vacation are able to use this lane.

Anyway, During the past several days, there has been a major focus on handing out tickets to those who use it anyway. There was no less than 8 cop cars (all unmarked) pulling motorists over. I can only imagine this is Gov. Corzines way to bridge the budget gap.

The result is that now us commuters know they are there, we have stopped using the HOV lane (for now), so Corzine's revenue source will dry up. It's just like placing additional taxes on heavy construction equipment, then spending the anticipated revenues only to find that they have taxed the industry to a point that they all moved to Pennsylvania (This was a Florio fiasco, but dems never learn). The other result is that there is now much more traffic and congestion, causing more pollution due to more cars moving much slower in denser areas.

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