GOP Lawmakers Blame Murphy For Proposed NJ Transit Fare Hike

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — A Republican state lawmaker who represents several towns in Essex County is among those crying foul over a proposed fare hike for NJ Transit bus and train riders.

In a statement issued Thursday, Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips (NJ-40) blasted a potential fare hike that may lighten the wallets of many Garden State commuters, linking them to the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy. See Related: NJ Transit To Raise Fares 15% On July 1

NJ Transit has announced a 15 percent rate hike as part of its 2025 budget. If approved in April, the increase will take effect on July 1. Three percent increases are also proposed to take effect on July 1 of each year, officials said.

The proposed rate increases are NJ Transit's first since 2015, the public transit provider said, and come as a result of low pandemic-related ridership that has cost NJ Transit $2 billion in revenue to date. See Related: No Fare Hike In NJ Transit's 2023 Budget; Here's What It Does Include

In his statement, DePhillips blamed the Murphy administration for laying the track work for the proposed fare hikes.

“After years of taking credit for no fare hikes, the Murphy administration is not only raising fees, but also making up for lost time,” charged DePhillips, a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee and the GOP conference leader.

“Murphy's proudest NJ Transit talking point has just been wiped out with one stroke,” the assemblyman said.

DePhillips noted the plan would not only allow for the steep increase this year, but install 3 percent increases indefinitely. It’s riders who will pay the price, he says:

“In 10 years, the Northeast Corridor Line – NJ Transit’s busiest – will cost $25.11 from Hamilton Station to New York Penn Station. The immediate increase for a one-way ticket will be $2.44, from $16.25 to $18.69. Tickets on NJ Transit’s Mainline would increase by $2.10, from $14 to $16.10 initially, for a rider traveling from Mahwah to NYC. In 10 years, a ticket would cost $21.63 for the same ride.”

Both examples are a 55 percent fare hike over 10 years, DePhillips said.

“A better approach is to find ways to restructure the agency for cost savings before raising fare hikes,” he argued. “Instead, [the Murphy] administration nibbles around the edges, leases an unaffordable new NJ Transit headquarters from a friend, and raises ticket prices.”

DePhillips represents New Jersey’s 40th Legislative District, which includes Caldwell, Cedar Grove, Essex Fells, Fairfield, North Caldwell and Verona in Essex County; Franklin Lakes, Ridgewood and Wyckoff in Bergen County; and Hawthorne, Little Falls, Totowa, Wayne and Woodland Park in Passaic County.

Other Republican lawmakers in New Jersey have recently gone on record in opposition to the fare increases.

Assemblyman Christian Barranco (NJ-25), another member of the Assembly Transportation Committee, criticized Gov. Murphy and Democratic legislators for “keeping the failing agency afloat” using federal COVID-19 relief funds and other dedicated state agency funds.

According to a statement from Barranco:

“Government lockdowns during the pandemic decimated NJ Transit’s ridership; although it has improved, ridership remains more than 20% below what it was pre-lockdown. Even before 2020, the agency struggled to attract and keep staff and maintain its aging fleet of 2,221 buses, 1,231 trains and 93 light rail vehicles serving 253 bus routes and 12 rail lines. A record number of equipment breakdowns led to mass train cancellations and stranded commuters in 2021. Remember those? This happened despite a total $4.4 billion in federal Covid relief funds to fill its budget gaps starting in 2020. Even with this emergency and its regular federal and state aid, NJ Transit faces a structural deficit—when spending outpaces revenues—for the fiscal year in 2025. Even still, plans for a 25-year lease for a new corporate headquarters to the tune of $120 million in repairs over six years at 2 Gateway Plaza in Newark are underway.”

“Democrats were warned for years, and now the rate hikes are here, and all they can do is put out statements of faux-outrage over where we find ourselves not-so-suddenly,” Barranco said.

“It’s too little, too late for the people struggling to make ends meet,” he added.

• See Related: Murphy Releases NJ Transit Audit: Budget Woes, 'Talent Drain'
• See Related: 3 Problems New Jersey Kicked Down The Road With Latest Budget

COULD THIS BUSINESS TAX HELP REDUCE FARE HIKES?

Meanwhile, critics on the opposite end of the political spectrum have also been blasting the proposed fare hikes – but for different reasons.

Over the past year, several advocacy groups in New Jersey have been calling for the state to extend a business tax that they say could be used to bridge NJ Transit’s funding gap – and keep more money in riders’ pockets.

That tax – the corporate business tax (CBT) – expired on Dec. 31, despite last-gasp efforts to pass a law to keep it intact. See Related: Controversial NJ Business Tax May Survive If New Bill Becomes Law

“Forcing riders to foot the bill and relying on farebox revenue to bridge the financial gap is not just inequitable, it’s bad policy,” New Jersey Policy Perspective policy analyst Alex Ambrose said.

According to Ambrose, policymakers “chose corporations over New Jersey’s working families” when they “gave ultra-wealthy businesses like Amazon and Walmart a $1 billion tax cut” by refusing to extend the corporate surcharge tax.

Eric Benson, a campaign director with For The Many NJ – a statewide coalition of dozens of public advocacy groups – also suggested raising taxes on “the wealthy and powerful” to make up for the looming shortfall.

“Fare hikes on everyday New Jerseyans does nothing to make the state more affordable and shows why we need to have fair sustainable revenue like the corporation business tax surtax,” Benson said. “While big corporations are getting $1 billion in tax cuts, New Jersey's leaders have no plan to fill budget holes and instead are throwing the costs to working families.”

“If the governor and Legislature don't get serious about raising revenues from the wealthy and powerful, it will be the working and middle-class residents of the state who end up paying the price,” Benson insisted.

• See Related: Debate On Corporate Tax Reignites As NJ Transit Hikes Bus, Train Fares
• See Related: NJ Residents Approve Of This Tax Hike, New Poll Says

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