INSIDE INFORMATION ON TEA-21 RENEWAL
The man who should know believes Congress will renew the TEA-21 transportation funding bill by July 1, 2005, and that the final number could be around $290 billion.

That was the outlook given by Congressman Don Young of Alaska, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to 200 business, labor and government leaders at a luncheon in Newark on May 23 sponsored by the NJ Alliance for Action.

Young will serve as Chairman of the Conference Committee which will try to reconcile differences among the House, Senate and White House. The Senate has passed a $295 billion bill and the House has approved $284 billion, the maximum President Bush has stated he would accept without a veto.

New Jersey will have two strong voices on the Conference Committee in U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Robert Menendez of the 13th District.

The TEA-21 program expired on May 31, but Congress has passed a 30-day extension. The seventeen-term Alaska Congressman warned that states such as New Jersey, which depend on federal transportation funding, cannot afford to wait much longer. He created some optimism at the Alliance function by acknowledging that “New Jersey and New York are transportation gateways vital to the nation.”

PFIZER GROUNDBREAKING TO SAVE 2,000 JOBS
Good economic news broke on the same day that the Alliance for Action’s “Online News Now” service began. Acting Governor Codey on Tuesday, May 31, helped to break ground on a $500 million expansion by Pfizer, Inc., in Morris Plains. The expansion by Pfizer, the world’s second largest consumer health company, will keep more than 2,000 jobs in New Jersey.

Pfizer was the first company to take advantage of the state’s Business Retention and Relocation Grant program, which provides tax incentives for businesses to remain and expand in NJ.

PATAKI OPENS WAY FOR NEW RAIL TUNNEL AS PART OF ARC
A tremendous breakthrough came for New Jersey when New York Governor George Pataki declared his support for the $5 billion project to build a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River linking New Jersey to Midtown Manhattan.

With NJ Transit ridership expected to double to some 100,000 rush-hour passengers a day by 2015, New Jersey officials have lobbied for the project for decades. One of the major obstacles has always been a lack of support from New York, particularly Pataki.

The new tunnel would be a key link in the crucial transportation program long supported by the Alliance for Action known as ARC, Access to the Region’s Core.

NEW BRIDGE OVER THE DELAWARE ANNOUNCED
More good transportation infrastructure news came from the other side of the state in May when it was announced that the heavily traveled Scudder Falls bridge in Mercer County will be replaced by a nine-lane span by 2011. The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission said construction is scheduled to begin in 2009. Best of all, there are no plans to charge tolls because the project will be funded by revenues from the commission’s seven other toll bridges. For further info, call the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission at (215) 295-5061.

CODEY NAMES NEW MEMBERS OF SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOARD
Reform of NJ’s embattled school construction program moved forward with the appointment by Acting Governor Richard Codey of two new members of the Board of the SCC. They are Lawrence M. Downes, Chairman of the Board and CEO of New Jersey Natural Gas, and R. Edwin Selover, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Public Service Enterprise Group, Inc.

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