Dear Mayor:

Without a new source of funding, New Jersey's Transportation Trust Fund will run dry by the middle of next year. Unless something is done before then, there could be no Local Aid for municipal or county roads, bridges and other transit projects in next year's State Budget. If that happens, 100% of your local road repair and maintenance spending will fall on your property taxpayers. Any deferral of maintenance and repair would inevitably adversely effect local emergency response time, citizen satisfaction with the transportation infrastructure and your local economy.

If this issue is not dealt with in the lame duck session of the Legislature, after the November elections, it will have to be one of the first priorities of the new governor, when he takes office in January.

In response to this impending crisis, the League has joined a coalition of concerned groups. The coalition is called Transportation New Jersey. For more information on our efforts, please visit our website, www.njslom.org, and click on the "Transportation Trust Fund" banner, on the left hand side of the site.

If you have not already done so, we urge you to pass a resolution supporting reauthorization and replenishment of the Fund. A sample is available online, at http://www.njslom.org/ml072005a_resolution.html, or through accessing our July 20 "Dear Mayor" letter, at the site.

If you would like to learn more about this issue, please contact me at 609-695-3481, ext. 22. We would be happy to arrange for a speaker to give a presentation at any county league or local mayors' association meeting. We have, also, scheduled a major session on this issue for our November Conference. The session will be held on Wednesday, November 16, at 2:00 p.m., in Room 304.

Thank you.