Jamie Fox has just ended his second tour of duty as New
Jersey Commissioner of Transportation, and it didn’t work out the way he – and
many of us – had hoped. The short
version is that Fox – a very partisan Democrat – came back to NJDOT under a
Republican governor to try to put together a bipartisan transportation funding
bill. Aaaaaand it didn’t
happen. The odds were always
against him. Most New Jersey
Republicans have caught the anti-tax fever (or maybe the
anti-getting-primaried-from-the-right fever) and of course the governor still
has presidential aspirations, which overshadows every policy decision. But still, this would have been a good time to raise the gas tax and reauthorize
the state’s Transportation Trust Fund: gas prices are well below $2.00 a
gallon, the Trust Fund is out of money, the needs are staggering, a lot of
popular projects could be put out the door at good prices, and Jamie Fox has as
much talent at legislative magic as anyone. But it didn’t happen.
Jamie Fox is a brave man who took on a daunting challenge
simply because he thought it was the right thing to do. He wasn’t able to slay the dragon, but
he deserves our thanks for giving it a try.
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