New Jersey Governor Chris Christie wants to shut the last two rest-stop bathrooms on non-toll roads in the most densely populated U.S. state after this year to save $270,000.
“We just don’t have the money for the bathroom facilities,” Christie’s transportation commissioner, James Simpson, told members of the Senate Budget and Appropriations committee today during a hearing on his department’s $1.24 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
The bathrooms scheduled to close under Christie’s plan are on Interstate 80 at the Pennsylvania border and Interstate 295 at the Delaware border. Parking areas at the rest areas will remain open for truckers under Christie’s plan, Simpson said. The closings will eliminate 18 maintenance positions, according to the department’s written response to questions from the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.
“Lavatory and tourism facilities will now be closed on all of the state’s non-toll roadways,” the response says.
Drivers will still find bathroom facilities on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway. Those are two of the busiest toll roads in the U.S., according to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.
Christie, a Republican who took office Jan. 19, last month proposed a $29.3 billion budget that includes $10 billion of spending reductions to help close a $10.7 billion deficit. The legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, is holding hearings on the proposal. A budget must be approved by July 1.
Simpson told lawmakers he is hoping to coax federal officials to give the state an exemption that would allow a private vendor to operate a cafe at the sites where the rest rooms are scheduled to close Jan. 1, enabling the bathrooms to stay open.
(Source: Bloomberg News / Business Week)
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14 Responses
Now that makes sense. Its about time New Jersey got a politician with a brain on his head. If you can’t afford it, then shut it down! Let a private guy put up a rest stop, just like the Sunoco gas station on the Palisades. The bathrooms on the Palisades are clean, and the gas station makes money by people purchasing food in the store.
This governor should be the President. Remember these 2 RULES 1. STOP SPENDING. 2ND RULE REMEMBER THE FIRST RULE
That sure is a way to remind people of the budget problem.
So now people care more about their money than their health! THAT’S PATHETIC! People need to go to the bathroom!
But thecommissioner, what is the alternative if you need the bathroom on a public road? Never mind…..
There are two categories under the “Idiot” classification. One is the Democrat and the other the Republican. Taxes go up while things are taken away. So where will that 270,000 go now? How about explaining that!
MoshiachNow, taxes are skyrocketing because costs are skyrocketing. The government isn’t profitting off of taxes. Taxes cover services for its people.
I actual think this is a good idea. There is always somewhere to stop to use the bathroom, even if it costs you. And you can buy brief reliefs to use on the road.
We are in an ECONOMIC CRISIS people. Time to cut uneccesary services.
MoshiachNow01, the Republicans are not for higher taxes and you know it too. The $270,000 will be used to CUT TAXES and save your fellow Jewish brothers and sisters money. Not that you really care about that…..
MoshiachNow01, WE DIDN’T HAVE THE 270.000$ to spend it, just like we don’t have the rest of the 10000000000$ debt that the state of New Jersey has incurred in the past 10 years!!! Anyway, is either that or Obama, which one do you prefer?
#7, people in the government are clearly benefitting from high taxes or any taxes at all.
#8, while the perception still is the GOP are not for taxes, Bush spent money like a drunken sailor creating the situation we have now. And, as far as we can tell, the entire US, and all the states are in the same boat whether they have republicans or democrats in office. In fact, McCain’s “leadership” in Arizona has contributed to expenses which are causing it to go bankrupt.
A rose by any other name is still the same. These politicians are not cut from that much of a different cloth. They grew up in mostly the same socio-economic level, went to the same colleges and law schools, and play on the same golf-courses.
None of the parties are doing us justice because of the people in them, not the philosophy they claim to embrace.
#9, the article is not clear whether or not we dont have the money and have not been paying for it’s upkeep, or whether there are monies used for that expense that are being cut back. In either case, it does not make sense. What will it cost to dismantle the facility that is no longer being cared for? If it is already abandoned, then there is nothing we are saving. Again, the article is not clear or the press release is manipulative.
Why do they need federal permission to auction the right to a private company to open a cafe on a public highway. Obama and the Congress have better things to do then worry about toilets on state highways.
Don’t people read the articles? “Simpson told lawmakers he is hoping to coax federal officials to give the state an exemption that would allow a private vendor to operate a cafe at the sites where the rest rooms are scheduled to close Jan. 1, enabling the bathrooms to stay open.”
Meaning, that instead of the State paying someone X amount of money to operate the rest stop, then paying the guys medical,dental, and then a pension. He wants the Federal Government to STOP REGULATING THE BATHROOMS,so you can allow private individuals to set up shop there, provide bathrooms to the public free of charge, and then the state can actually MAKE MONEY instead of spending it.
MoshiachNow01, not all of the states are in the same boat as New York or New Jersey. A couple of states I can think of right on the top of my head is Oklahoma and Louisiana, both lead by conservative Republicans.
It was the Community Reinvestment Act, pioneered under Carter and pushed under Clinton with Andrew Cuomo in the lead that lead to the stock market dropping the way it did a couple of years ago.
There is a famous economist by the name of Milton Friedman. He wrote that the cause of most of the the country’s economic ills is a result of the policies coming out of Washington by the Democrats.