The Transportation Department flatly rejected Friday New Jersey's arguments to not repay $271 million that was spent on a Hudson River train tunnel project, known as Access to the Region's Core, that New Jersey canceled last year, according to an article in the Saturday edition of The New York Times by Patrick McGeehan, which declared that "the message to Gov. Chris Christie was blunt: Repay now or we will collect the debt the hard way. Plus interest." The "ARC" tunnel was estimated to cost $8.7 billion.
Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, warned in a letter to New Jersey's senators and representatives in Congress, that his department had "many tools under the Debt Collection Art to recoup the lost federal taxpayer funds, including withholding future state funding from a wide variety of sources.
But" in consideration of the current economic challenges burdening New jersey," he added, he hoped to 'develop a workable payment schedule ' and avoid having to resort to those collection methods.
Mr. LaHood, the article continued, "should not expect to find a check in the mail any time soon. Mr. Christie...declared in January that 'we are not paying the money back."
"When federal transportation officials demanded that New Jersey repay money already spent on the project, Mr. Christie hired Patton Boggs, a Washington law firm, to challenge that demand, The lawyers, who reportedly have billed the state and New Jersey Transit about $800,000 argued that the state stopped the project because of unforeseen costs that were beyond its control. But...Mr. Lahood said Mr. Christie had reaffirmed his support for the project a year ago when New Jersey Transit officials knew that the cost of the tunnel could rise as high as $12 billion....A federal official involved in the dispute said the state could have offered to repay as little as $1 and the government would have been obligated to negotiate a settlement, a process which could have dragged on for years. All the while, no interest would have accrued on the debt, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record," the article said.
Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, warned in a letter to New Jersey's senators and representatives in Congress, that his department had "many tools under the Debt Collection Art to recoup the lost federal taxpayer funds, including withholding future state funding from a wide variety of sources.
But" in consideration of the current economic challenges burdening New jersey," he added, he hoped to 'develop a workable payment schedule ' and avoid having to resort to those collection methods.
Mr. LaHood, the article continued, "should not expect to find a check in the mail any time soon. Mr. Christie...declared in January that 'we are not paying the money back."
"When federal transportation officials demanded that New Jersey repay money already spent on the project, Mr. Christie hired Patton Boggs, a Washington law firm, to challenge that demand, The lawyers, who reportedly have billed the state and New Jersey Transit about $800,000 argued that the state stopped the project because of unforeseen costs that were beyond its control. But...Mr. Lahood said Mr. Christie had reaffirmed his support for the project a year ago when New Jersey Transit officials knew that the cost of the tunnel could rise as high as $12 billion....A federal official involved in the dispute said the state could have offered to repay as little as $1 and the government would have been obligated to negotiate a settlement, a process which could have dragged on for years. All the while, no interest would have accrued on the debt, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record," the article said.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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