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TagsBY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) Friday announced that he has launched an investigation into the shutdown of construction of the Hudson commuter rail tunnel by Gov. Chris Christie.
Lautenberg said the investigation will attempt to determine the circumstances, actions and motivations that led to the shutdown of what was the nation's largest public works project, and the decision that is expected to cost the state government $3 billion in federal transportation aid.
The senator said that following a preliminary report that will be released before the end of this year, a final report will be delivered to the public within six months that will catalog all details and include recommendations to prevent such a loss of federal revenue in the future.
"The cancellation of the ARC tunnel project will have repercussions for our state for decades and could harm the ability of New Jersey to secure transportation resources in the future," Lautenberg said. "It is critical that the public know what happened and how we can prevent this from happening in the future."While I'm working in Congress to secure the federal funding our state needs to create jobs and improve the quality of life for New Jersey families, there has to be some assurance that large-scale projects are being handled properly at home," the senator added.
"This investigation will root out the falsehoods and potential conflicts of interest surrounding the ARC Tunnel and identify the motivations and factors that led to the project's demise."
Michael Drewniak, Christie's press secretary, offered this response to Lautenberg's announcement.
"We don't know how much clearer the governor could be: New Jersey cannot afford to be on the hook with a blank check for this project stretching years into the future. It is not fair or responsible to do that to our taxpayers. Senator Lautenberg has been in Washington for too long and has clearly lost touch with New Jersey, its taxpayers and fiscal condition."
Drewniak added, "The project that Senator Lautenberg is most proud of is also the one that will cost his constituents — New Jersey families — the most. Instead of this caustic outburst from him, perhaps the senator can explain why he is insisting New Jersey tax and toll payers fund 70 percent of a project while billions in federal funding pour out of Washington for high-speed rail lines in other states like Florida, which will pay only 20 percent of project costs."
Responding to Lautenberg's announcement, Assemblyman David Rible (R-Monmouth) said, "There's nothing left to investigate; New Jersey is broke and Governor Christie won't put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars of cost overruns. If Senator Lautenberg really wanted to move this project forward, he would have persuaded his friends in Washington to send more federal railroad funding to New Jersey instead of other states like Florida and California. Instead of launching another political witch hunt, perhaps Senator Lautenberg should start with an investigation into why New Jersey taxpayers get so little of their money back from Washington."
Christie officially shutdown the tunnel project on Wednesday over concerns about a potential cost overrun for the financially-strapped state government of over $2 billion. The action was opposed by the federal government, Democratic legislators, planners and environmentalists. But a Rutgers-Eagleton Poll released Friday found the majority of the public support the shutdown.
One of the issues Lautenberg said he intends to investigate is the role of state Transportation Commissioner James Simpson. Simpson worked on the tunnel project for most of the year and represented the state at a Sept. 24 meeting in Washington with federal officials to discuss the future of the ARC project after a news report appeared raising the issue of a conflict of interest ethics violation.
Lautenberg said Simpson oversaw work on the tunnel for the federal government under President Bush as the head of the Federal Transit Administration. The senator said the state Uniform Ethics Code prohibits a state official from having any involvement on a project if that person worked on the same project for any other government or private entity.
We are confident that there is no conflict as Mr. Simpson awaits a final determination from the state Ethics Commission," Drewniak said. "After it was raised publicly (by Assembly Transporation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski), Simpson self-reported to the state Ethics Commission, and then recused himself from further participation on the ARC (tunnel) steering committee. The reports to the governor came from the chair of that committee, (NJ Transit director) Jim Weinstein. Of course, it was the governor who made the decision, based on the costs of the project and funding imbalance from Washington and other benefiting jurisdictions."
