Since New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced in mid-September that he would be suspending work on the trans-Hudson rail crossing we know as the ARC Tunnel, the staff of The Star-Ledger has been all over this story. They were the first to report on the suspension and have numerous sources within the Christie Administration keeping them abreast of the latest developments. Their latest piece — a glimpse inside the negotiations with the feds that resulted in a two-week reprieve for the project — might just be their best.
The gist of their piece is, as the headline suggests, the 36 hours that saved the ARC Tunnel. They track Christie’s decision to make the announcement to scrap the tunnel after he made a few key political appearances in Iowa and the timing of the announcement that conveniently coincided with testimony by Bret Schundler on a mistake that cost New Jersey hundreds of millions of federal education dollars. Christie, they say, was intent on scraping the ARC Tunnel as early as June but acted recently when it became politically prudent to do so. They write:
Christie — riding a wave of national popularity built on the combination of his government-cutting bona fides and his tough-guy-from-Jersey image — was already leaning toward killing the project as far back as June, say those close to him. Last month, in a decision that startled transportation advocates and Washington, Christie abruptly suspended the project after more than half a billion dollars had already been spent. But it was not until last week that he made the final decision to cancel.
The actual timing of the governor’s final decision caught many off guard — including those in Washington. And it came as the governor was suffering through a public flogging at the hands of one of his own — the man he had chosen to lead his push to reform education. Bret Schundler had been fired in August in a dispute over a failed $400 million federal grant.
Thursday morning, Schundler was telling the Senate under oath that the governor lost the federal funding because of a vendetta against the state’s leading teachers union. And as Schundler’s testimony was reaching toward its third hour in a Statehouse committee room, the governor’s office sent out a news alert, summoning reporters for an announcement. The topic was not specified, but it was quickly learned that Christie was killing the ARC tunnel.
Christie denied he timed his announcement to steal Schundler’s thunder, but political observers said it couldn’t have been mere coincidence since less than 24 hours earlier the governor had said he didn’t know when he would have enough information to make his decision.
At first, aides to Ray LaHood, the nation’s Secretary of Transportation, wanted to attack Christie for this short-sighted decision, but LaHood went with diplomacy instead. The government believes that Christie’s claims of $5 billion in cost overruns are both wrong and intentionally misleading, but the two were able to work together to reach a detente. The feds would address some of Christie’s legitimate gripes with the project — its need for a new station deep under 34th St. that doesn’t offer a quick and easy to connection to Amtrak — and Christie would be open to their suggestions.
Still, the problem remains one of costs. “We have to work on the money,” Christie said as his meeting with LaHood ended, and the costs are still an issue. The governor still has the tunnel is “not financially viable” and would prefer to use that money — and not higher gas taxes — to save the state’s sinking Transportation Trust Fund. In this instance, though, killing two birds with one stone would be committing mobility murder.
So now, we wait. In ten days, Christie and LaHood will come together to determine the fate of a project the region needs and, with it, billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. Still, I’m not going to hold my breath. This one feels a little less optimistic than it should.
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