N.J. governor willing to do whatever it takes to fund transportation

Apparently, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine is at his very, very last resort.

When asked if he would raise the state’s 14.5-cent gas tax a year ago, Corzine put the chance at the bottom of the possibility pile.

“[Raising the tax] would be a very, very last resort,” he said.

Now, Gov. Corzine is willing to do just about anything to keep infrastructure projects moving, even if it means weighing down on New Jersey’s $8 billion budget hole.

If the gas tax is not raised, the state will divert funding from other programs to move road and bridge projects along.

“I’m more than happy to do either one of them,” Corzine told The Star-Ledger, “not because I like doing it, but because it’s going to be necessary.”

New Jersey’s transportation fund is expected to run dry by mid-2011, and Gov. Corzine finds himself in a tough battle for re-election. In two years the toll and gas-tax revenue that pays for the program will be required to pay the interest on previously borrowed money. The Corzine administration grabbed $6 billion in loaners in 2006 to extend the trust fund another five years.

“Fifty years from now, when the trains are going under the Hudson River, people will say somebody was willing to make an unpopular decision to do something,” Corzine said.