Comments of Board Member Bob Gordon On His Departure from the New Jersey Transit Board
Comments of Board Member Bob Gordon On His Departure from the New Jersey Transit Board
December 12, 2023
I’d like to make a brief comment.
As has been reported recently, after serving four years, I have decided to leave the board of New Jersey Transit. My term expired on December 6th, and I let the Governor know last month that I do not wish to be reappointed. And so, today is my last board meeting.
My decision to leave the Board elicits mixed emotions. On the one hand, I am excited to be undertaking a new role at Stevens & Lee Public Affairs, where I will be devoting much of my effort to advancing new clean energy and infrastructure policies for New Jersey. While I will have a new role, I wil continue working for improvements in mass transit. At the same time, I regret that I will not be here to work with the Board and Transit staff in confronting what may be the greatest challenge in the agency’s history.
I am speaking, of course, of the billion dollar budget deficit that we must address in the coming months. Because much of our spending is contractual and driven by escalation factors, that shortfall will only grow, if a solution is not found.
To her credit, the Chair has stated that before we go to the Legislature or to our customers for new resources, we need to find cost-savings and every possible efficiency. Based on my earlier career in corporate management consulting, I am confident that such cost-savings can be found. However, I also am quite certain that those savings will not come close to offsetting a billion dollar deficit.
The reality is that New Jersey Transit, like every other major mass transit system in this country, needs a stable, predictable, and adequate long-term source of funding. I said that at my first Transit Board meeting four years ago, and I repeat it at my last. While allocating a portion of the Corporate Business Tax has been seen as a possible solution, the Governor and legislative leaders have rejected that option. My hope is that the Governor, Legislature and key stakeholders will come together to find a solution that all find acceptable.
The task calls for both political courage and creativity. My personal view is that if we cannot avoid a congestion tax, a significant portion of the revenues must be recycled back to New Jersey Transit riders. As recently documented by the Regional Plan Association, New Jersey commuters now represent nearly 10 percent of all workers in New York City, 44 percent of all commuters into the City and contribute a massive $61.7 billion to the regional economy. Our leaders must continue to press New York for our fair share of the revenue.
We also need to try new approaches. One option I would suggest is updating our existing impact fee laws. I was looking at this just before I left the Senate. If a property developer is going to build a project that increases demand for transit services, that developer should contribute funds to alleviate the stress on the system. Again, this mechanism will not generate the total revenue required, but could contribute to a funding package. I urge my friends and former colleagues in the Legislature to make New Jersey Transit funding reform a major priority in the upcoming session of the Legislature.
Let me close by saying that it has been a privilege to work with our Chair, my fellow Board members, the exceptional New Jersey Transit staff and many of the rider advocates I’ve met over the last four years. I feel particularly lucky to have been a member of what I call the Transit “Class of 2020” because I learned so much from and enjoyed working with James Adams, Cedrick Fulton, Shanti Narra, Sangeeta Doshi and Rich Maroko. And I can’t say enough about the dedication of the New Jersey Transit staff—from Kevin to our people in the field. You all could be making more money doing other things, but you work here because you want to serve the people of New Jersey. The advances of the last six years would not have been possible without you. Finally, I want to thank Governor Murphy for giving me another opportunity to serve my state. I am very grateful. I wish you all the very best as you address the challenges ahead.
