Dive Brief:
- Passaic County, NJ, has announced its intention to sue the state's Department of Transportation for costs resulting from Gov. Chris Christie's order to shut down all projects funded through the near-empty Transportation Trust Fund (TTF), according to The Record.
- Citing safety issues, Passaic County officials said they used their own funds to continue with certain state projects after the shutdown, such as a $330,000 repaving project that left raised manhole covers exposed. The county has a multimillion-dollar lineup of infrastructure projects now on hold.
- Passaic County Counsel William Pascrell, who notified the state DOT of Passaic's intention to sue over breach of contract, said that the county will mostly likely incur demobilization and remobilization costs associated with the shutdown, as well as delay-related expenses — all of which it expects the state to cover.
Dive Insight:
The governor and state Democrats agreed on a gas-tax increase to replenish the TTF, but Christie issued a stop-work order for all state-funded transportation work in Jly when the two camps could not agree on budget reductions to counterbalance that measure. Christie authorized the use of money from the state's general fund last month to pay for "essential" road and highway work, but there was no indication from Passaic that it received any of those funds. According to The New York Times, the stop-work order sidelined more than $3 billion worth of TTF projects.
Since the shutdown, state Democrats offered Christie another budget deal, this one including a phase-out of the New Jersey estate tax. However, Christie rejected the $900 million package, stating that it did not offer enough tax relief for the state's residents. Christie said he wants a 1% decrease in the state sales tax to balance out a proposed 23-cent hike in the gas tax.
Passaic County could be just a bellwether of other county and contractor lawsuits to come, all in an effort to get the state to reimburse their shutdown-induced costs. According to the executive director of the Utility and Transportation Contractors Association, the situation could generate an additional $24 million in contractor remobilization costs alone. Workers are also feeling the pinch as they watch the good weather months — the period when most infrastructure projects are performed — dwindle away. Not only does the approaching winter offseason mean that stalled projects won't start up again until spring, but workers could also be looking at nine months of no paychecks.