Governor Christie announced that not only would he not be paying the FTA the $271 million that they are demanding for the cancelation of the now nationally infamous ARC tunnel, but that the state has retained Patton Boggs on behalf of NJ Transit to take the fight to court.
New Jersey’s argument is that the FTA has not gone after New York in similar situations when transportation projects had been canceled in the past. In particular, the Christie Administration cites the RGRTA, which is not nearly as good of a name as ARC, that was canceled at the last minute after millions had already been spent.
Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce responded to the move today,
In such difficult economic times, it defies reason why the Obama administration is trying to recover millions from our state’s long-suffering taxpayers when, in the past, New York State abandoned an FTA project without consequence. It is time for New Jersey’s federal representatives to work with the governor in opposing this unreasonable FTA demand.
It may defy reason, but its certainly not hard to understand. The Obama Administration and Senator Lautenberg were taken by surprise when Governor Christie put a stop to the overly expensive tunnel project. Lautenberg surely had a hand in acquiring what little funding was made available to the state by the FTA. The demands for the funding back is purely political. What better way to get back at Chris Christie, a rising star in the GOP nationally who Obama is surely developing a dossier on for the future, than to force the taxpayers to pay a penalty for what otherwise would be a smart fiscal decision made on their behalf? Christie isn’t taking this laying down, and he shouldn’t!
Maybe Christie will find a nice activist judge to give him what he wants. hopefully the legal bill won't be too much since we can't afford it.