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Make Money Online New Jersey Transit is facing a financial crisis caused in part by its use of state and federal funds intended for long-term projects and maintenance to pay its day-to-day operating costs, an independent study warned today.

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Internet Business Opportunity The report, by the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, says the public transit agency, the nation's third largest, is in a "financial morass," saddled with a growing operating deficit that threatens its ability to meet future needs particularly as ridership soars in the aftermath of the terror attacks.

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Free Money The underlying cause of the problem, the study says, is the failure of the State Legislature and several governors to provide adequate operating aid each year, and the state's failure to allow modest fare increases over the last 11 years. As a result, the report says, the agency has diverted about 70 percent of its state and federal capital-improvement funds to short-term expenses.

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Work At Home Business But the report went on to blame the agency for spending the remaining 30 percent on new, politically popular projects that are being pursued rapidly and often without strategic planning, adding to the operating deficit. That deficit is now $569 million, about half the size of the current budget.

Municipalities pay, and are later reimbursed by the commission. Although the commission is a state agency, its budget is largely made up of money the commission charges private companies to dump at the Erie Landfill in North Arlington, which the commission owns and operates. Other funds come from methane the commission collects from three defunct landfills and sells to energy companies. Also on Monday, the commission granted the sports authority $250, 000 for engineering studies for a proposed $150 million rail link to the sports complex off a nearby NJ Transit line.

Free Online Affiliate Program Among the study's recommendations is a moratorium on new rail projects until elected officials and the agency address the basic problems: chronic underfinancing and diversion of capital funds.

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Auction Coin Money Paper "This is not a simple financial rut from which N.J. Transit can escape with ease," the report said. "With the funding made available to it, N.J. Transit has been directed to overextend itself; use capital to pay operating maintenance expenses, incur too much debt service and use other preservation capital to construct and then operate too many new rail projects."

Franchise Business Opportunity Jeffrey Warsh, the executive director of the transit agency, which operates the state's heavy commuter rail, light rail and bus lines as well as the Newark subway system, agreed in many ways with the report's assessment. In fact, a similar critique was made by the agency itself in a report released Sept. 10 but was largely ignored outside transit advocacy circles.

Best Free Online Affiliate Mr. Warsh disagreed, however, with the criticism that the agency had moved too quickly on costly new systems and rail lines. Without the rapid construction on the Hudson Bergen Light Rail system and the near-completion of the Secaucus interchange, he said, the agency will not be ready to handle the sudden increases in ridership in the wake of traffic snares since the trade center attack and the loss of the major PATH station beneath the towers.

Blogging Money Thebillivard "We are seeing a 45 percent increase in ridership that we weren't supposed to see for a decade," Mr. Warsh said. "Yes, we have moved fast, but without that, we would be in bigger trouble than we are after Sept. 11."

Best Home Based Business Martin E. Robins, the principal author of the report said that with its diversion of capital funds and growing operating deficits, the agency is "operating on two of its six cylinders."

Affiliate Marketing Program He said that roughly $236 million in capital funds is being diverted each year to daily operations that ought to be devoted to meeting future needs. New Jersey Transit has been able to dodge the immediate problem of inadequate state operating assistance through changes in laws that have given it more flexibility in how it spends federal capital funds. The State Legislature has also relaxed its rules on how the agency can use Transportation Trust Fund money normally earmarked for long-term investments.

Money Site Thebillivard Com "Some of this gap could be addressed through fare increases," Mr. Robins said in the study, "but the lion's share of responsibility rests with appropriations from the next gubernatorial administration and the State Legislature."

Online Business Opportunity Because each 5 percent fare increase would net only $25 million, Mr. Robins said that even a 10 percent increase would not come close to meeting the agency's needs.

Pay Per Click Affiliate The board of New Jersey Transit approved a $1.14 billion budget for its commuter rail and bus lines for 2002 this past July, up $138 million from last year. The amount reflected state assistance to the agency, which was only one-third of the increased aid it had sought. This capped years in which federal operating assistance was virtually eliminated and state assistance was cut as well.

Cnn Money Kristen Fountain, spokeswoman for the Tristate Transportation Campaign, a regional mass transit advocacy group, said that there had been a "disconnect" between the long- term planning on mass transit needs and providing the operating money needed each year.

Business Opportunity Lead New Jersey transportation officials, she said, had embarked on ever-more ambitious plans, with the hope from year to year that their operating budgets would be increased to keep up with the pace.

Affiliate Program Directory "We need leaders who can bring the two processes together," she said of the long-term planning and the annual budget cycle. "It is one of the main things that the administration of Governor-elect James McGreevey ought to be focusing on, and maybe this study will help."

Making Money Program By Ronald Smothers
New York Times - 11/15/2001

Topic: Transportation

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