If the Transportation Trust Fund fails to generate capital, the Local Aid Program will not distribute any funding, and local governments will be forced to either abandon projects or pay for infrastructure improvements by other means, including cuts in services or increased property taxes.

Those words and that warning from the landmark report of the high-level, non-partisan State Blue Ribbon Commission two years ago, should sound a call to action for every mayor, local official and concerned citizen. We must mobilize and work together to convince the Governor and Legislature to reauthorize the trust fund, and to revitalize it with new revenues.

Without renewal of the Transportation Trust Fund, county and municipal governments will have to rely on local property taxes to undertake, Local Aid Projects or abandon them altogether. These projects are estimated to cost $3.7 billion over ten years as identified in Putting the Trust Back in the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund, 2005.

Today's report is being released by a broad-based, politically independent coalition. It underscores how much worse the Trust Fund crisis has become in the two years since the Blue Ribbon report and the urgent need for reform. The report concludes that unless substantial reforms are enacted and new revenue raised by June 30, 2006, successful programs such as those funded with Local Aid money are in jeopardy.

We must mobilize and work together to convince the Governor and Legislature to reauthorize the trust fund with needed reforms, and to revitalize it with new revenues.

For more information, please contact William G. Dressel, Jr. at (609) 695-3481, ext. 22 or on his cell phone at (609) 915-9072.