President Joe Biden passed his $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus bill on Wednesday, proposing spending $ 2 trillion on infrastructure. This plan has been called a “big game changer” for New Jersey by Governor Phil Murphy.
Biden’s plan calls for money to build the long-awaited Gateway Tunnel under the Hudson River and billions to clean up Superfund sites, New Jersey has more than any other state.
“It’s time to rebuild,” Biden said at a union training center in Pittsburgh. “It’s a one-time investment in America, unlike anything we’ve seen or done since the highway system and space race were built decades ago.”
“Is it big? Yes,” said Biden. “Is it brave? Yes. And we can do it.”
Biden, a former Amtrak daily driver who assisted Gateway during the campaign, received $ 80 billion in grant and loan programs for the passenger and federal railways, including billions for work along the busy Northeast Corridor.
This includes federal funding for the Gateway Tunnel under the Hudson River, which could close the existing pipes to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.
The plan also includes improving 20,000 miles of roads, granting state grants to rehabilitate 10 major bridges considered “economically important”, and repair 10,000 smaller spans.
As a state with a rapidly aging infrastructure, New Jersey will do better than many other states under the proposal, Murphy said.
“This infrastructure plan is a major change for us,” said Murphy at his press conference on the coronavirus. “If you invest heavily in infrastructure, climate, roads, bridges, rails and tunnels due to our density, our location and our old assets, we are a disproportionate winner.”
“We like what the president is doing for many reasons,” he said.
The bill includes $ 5 billion for the remediation of superfund and industrial wastelands, as well as the reintroduction of superfund taxes for companies responsible for the contamination to fund the remediation.
“Superfund locations threaten public health and the environment in New Jersey and across the country, and these locations could be cleaned up faster with adequate funding,” said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-6th Dist., Chairman of House Energy and Commerce Committee.
There’s also $ 45 billion to replace all of the lead water pipes. Several cities in New Jersey, particularly Newark, found high levels of lead in their drinking water.
“It will provide funding to replace aging water pipes in our country’s distribution system and hopefully support Newark’s current efforts to improve them across the city,” said Rep. Donald Payne Jr., D-10th Dist.
Legislation provides $ 20 billion to reconnect districts separated by highways such as Orange, which is bisected by I-280.
And there is a $ 174 billion program in place to expand the use of electric vehicles, including installing 500,000 charging stations and starting a program to power school buses with electricity instead of diesel fuel.
“There has to be a market for electric buses that people can make them in,” said Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters.
During the summer months, when the buses are usually idle, their charged batteries can help power the electrical grid in the communities they are in, Potosnak. said.
Transportation companies in three New Jersey school districts – Trenton, Elizabeth, and Jersey City – have received $ 5.7 million in grants for 15 electric school buses, five in each district. The money came from the settlement of a federal lawsuit against Volkswagen for tampering with the emissions controls on its vehicles.
Biden suggested paying for the eight-year program by rolling back some of former President Donald Trump’s corporate tax cuts, particularly the tax rate from 21% to 28%, still well below the 35% before the Republican tax law went into effect in 2017.
The Congressional Research Service said that companies spent little of their tax savings on higher wages or bonuses for workers, and rather used them to buy back stocks.
The reactions to the proposal were already divided politically.
Rosa DeLauro, Chair of House Appropriations, D-Conn., Said Biden provides “a clear way to invest in our communities once a century while creating millions of good jobs”.
On the flip side, the top Republican on the House Transportation Committee, Sam Graves of Missouri, declined to include non-transportation project funding on an infrastructure bill and declined to ask companies to pay more taxes.
“The president’s blueprint is a multi-trillion dollar partisan shopping list with progressive priorities, all of which are broadly classified as ‘infrastructure’ and are paid for with massive tax hikes for jobs,” Graves said.
Corporate groups opposed the proposed corporate tax increases.
Tom Bracken, president and general manager of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, said the right way to fund a massive infrastructure program is to use usage fees like gas tax to pay for the projects, as was the case in New Jersey.
“The taxes that are being considered for businesses will make us less competitive,” he said. “Why are you investing things to make us more competitive and then turn around and make us less competitive in business?
“If you match long-term assets with long-term debt and have a dedicated source of repayment from the primary users of those assets, this is the ideal infrastructure plan. This does not qualify. “
Biden said he was open to other ways to fund the infrastructure program.
“Let me be clear: these are my ideas on how to pay for this plan,” said Biden. “If others have additional ideas, please let them know. I’m open to other ideas as long as they don’t impose a tax hike on people making less than $ 400,000. “
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Jonathan D. Salant can be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant.
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