February 25th, 2010
NJ101.5
Racquel Williams Reporting

To listen to the audio click here.

Two state assemblymen Wednesday asked the state's Acting Transportation Commissioner to detail exactly what is being done to address customer service complaints filed by motorists against New Jersey Turnpike Authority toll collectors.

The recently published complaints range from threats of bodily harm to hurling racial slurs, to throwing change at drivers. Assemblymen John Wisniewski and Paul Moriarty want to know how this behavior could have been tolerated for so long...and what feeds it. Wisniewski says it's shameful because people who work for the state of New Jersey, including toll collectors, are ambassadors of the state.

By: EILEEN STILWELL • Courier-Post Staff • February 18, 2010

CAMDEN — Camden County will receive $5.8 million in federal stimulus money to construct two miles of bike paths through Camden to connect the suburbs to the waterfront and Philadelphia via the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

That's nearly $3 million a mile.

Camden County's share is part of a $23 million, bistate grant to create a regional network of bike paths.

Philadelphia and surrounding counties will receive $17.2 million for the same purpose. The total grant is part of $1.5 billion in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants that have been earmarked for improvements to roads, bridges, rail, ports, transit and intermodal facilities.

Though multiple agencies on both sides of the river collaborated on the application, Philadelphia's Deputy Transportation Commissioner Steve Buckley was the principal applicant. Together, the two states applied for $36 million to create 17 trails.

CQ Transcriptions
Thursday, February 25, 2010; 12:52 PM

OBAMA: OK. I'm going to let Rob -- feel free to respond to anything they've indicated, or to any of the other issues that have been discussed.

ANDREWS (?): Thank you, Mr. President.

I want to thank my friend Tom Coburn and John Kline for the spirited conversation which they offered, and try to carry that forward a little bit.

The president asked at the beginning of this what ideas do we share about cutting costs. And Tom, I think you had some very good ones. Fraud -- the president has a proposal that says we should have a database. If you've committed fraud against Medicare once, you can't make a contract again. Wellness -- there's a lot of good ideas in the bills. Junk lawsuits -- I think that there's -- what Secretary Sebelius is doing is very important in curtailing that.

BY: ASSEMBLYMAN PAUL MORIARTY
COMMENTARY
www.newjerseynewsroom.com

Budgets are about choices.

Even in the best of times, we didn't have enough money to spend on everything we wanted, and we certainly don't have that luxury now as we continue to fight our way through what's come to be known as The Great Recession.

I fully realize that spending cuts are in order, not only for this fiscal year, but for the state budget year that starts on July 1. After all, I've been one of the loudest voices in Trenton for spending cuts and public worker pension and benefit reforms since 2006. I've received much criticism for those stands, but I haven't backed down because I know they're the right thing to do.

But since budgets are about choices, we must be careful about making the right choices.

Some cuts are harsher than others, and among those are Gov. Chris Christie's cuts to the New Jersey After 3 program.