A state transportation panel is recommending that the New Jersey Assembly consider fuel tax increases and ways to convert existing interstates into toll roads.

The state Assembly Subcommittee on Transportation is recommending that the Assembly consider a public referendum to increase fuel taxes and “explore limited tolling of select interstate highways to pay for improvements to those highways.”

Specific interstates were not mentioned in the report, but New Jersey media are pointing to I-78, I-80, I-195, I-287 and I-295 as possible candidates.

The proposal is already being met with opposition.

Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce called interstate tolling “just another fee and tax the state doesn’t need,” according to The Daily Record.

A bright spot in the report for highway users included a recommendation that the Assembly return $112 million in heavy truck fees previously diverted from the Transportation Trust Fund.

Click here to read the panel’s report which was released in January.

– By David Tanner, staff writer
david_tanner@landlinemag.com