New Jersey has a plan to fix its $895  million a year highway and rail funding programs, the state’s Transportation Trust Fund, without raising gas taxes or adding tolls. This is a fund staring ‘zero’ in the face next summer if something isn’t done.

The plan, from Transportation Commissioner James Simpson, is thin on details at this stage, and to be fair Simpson was providing an overview to a Senate budget panel. But it’s also fair to ask, can it be done? Should it be done? Wallpapering over the cracks in infrastucture funding at a state or federal level is risky business. On the other hand, if Jersey can do it, the state may teach us some very valuable new funding tricks.

Tough test though. I lived in Union City, NJ, and the roads in that metropolitan area across the Hudson from Manhattan take an awful battering.

Check out this story on the plan from NJ.com