That was the report given by Ed McBride, Chief of Staff for Governor Corzine and Co-Chair of the Governor’s special task force to review the distribution and award of federal stimulus dollars. He spoke before some 300 people at a special conference on the impacts to New Jersey of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that was held on April 2, 2009 sponsored by the New Jersey Alliance for Action in Trenton.

McBride declared that the per capita economic benefits of the stimulus program in New Jersey are expected to be the highest in the country in proportion to population. He emphasized that the role of the task force is not to select projects, but to ensure that they are based on merits. He emphasized that the biggest infrastructure funding streams at this stage are for transportation and clean and drinking water.

New Jersey State Transportation Commissioner Stephen Dilts said New Jersey’s share of stimulus dollars from Washington will total $1.1 billion --- $652 million for highways and $424 million for transit. A key share of the transit funding will be $130 million for final design of the trans-Hudson rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan.

Dennis Merida, Division Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, commended New Jersey for its head start on a package of transportation projects to apply for federal funding.

Alliance for Action President Philip K. Beachem opened the conference by telling the audience that the stimulus funds represent a very large responsibility which requires communication and cooperation among all involved public agencies.

On the environmental side, Dennis Hart, Executive Director of the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust, reported that U.S. stimulus funding includes $161 million for New Jersey’s Clean Water Revolving Fund and $43 million for drinking water projects.

Gary Sondermeyer, Chief of Staff and Operations Director for the State Environmental Protection Department, said that in addition to the clean and drinking water programs, the DEP is focused on eight other environmental needs. They are underground storage tanks, Superfund cleanups, Brownfields remediation, wild fire hazard reductions, lowering diesel emissions, Army Corps of Engineers projects, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Programs and water quality management planning grants.

Also participating in a panel discussion of transportation needs were three executive directors of regional planning organizations, Mary K. Murphy of the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, Timothy Chelius of the South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization and Barry Seymour of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Authority.