Christie Taking Feds To Court Over $271 Million ARC Debt

AP Photo/Rich Schultz

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced plans to take the Obama administration to court to fight repaying the feds $271 million it was given to complete the ARC tunnel project, which Christie cancelled because it was too expensive. Apparently Christie didn't understand Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood when he said, "The law is clear on this matter. After the initial contract was entered into and later expanded at Governor Christie’s request, the state of New Jersey broke the terms." Christie said yesterday, "I ain't paying them. We're going to go to court. We're going before an impartial judge and let the judge decide." Who else read that in a Yosemite Sam voice?

Christie and the feds have been going back and forth on the issue since last November, and Christie ignored a previous refund deadline of Christmas Eve. He has admitted he's lost track of how many deadlines he's missed, and said yesterday that if the feds want the money, "they're going to have to come get it."

LaHood hasn't exactly been forceful in getting Christie to return the funds. Though he said the DOT is not above “withholding future state funding from a wide variety of sources," he added, "I am not pursuing these collection methods at this time in the hope that we and the state of New Jersey can develop a workable payment schedule." However, New Jersey paid a law firm $800,000 to make the case to the DOT, and they argued unsuccessfully that Christie didn't have an idea of the potential costs when he agreed to the plan. For their sake, we hope they made Christie pay up front.

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By Jaya Saxena in News on May 4, 2011 11:38 AM

Comments [rss]

Guest

honest question:
besides being an obnoxious blowhard, what right does Christie think he has in keeping federal funds allocated for a public works project that he squashed?

am i missing something here?

Politburo

There are two arguments.. one is that work was done with the $271 million that will support future FTA projects (such as the Amtrak tunnel which may replace the ARC plan). I think this is irrelevant because it doesn't seem like the agreement allows for this consideration.

The other the claim is that the possibility of cost overruns represents something 'outside of NJ's control'. Repayment is not required under the agreement if this condition is met.

There's kind of another argument wrapped in that one that says the Christie administration was not made aware of the magnitude of potential cost overruns, and that is the reasoning given for why he flip-flopped.

FTA asserts that NJ was always aware of the possibility of cost overruns. And FTA themselves indicated to NJ in 2010 (as they were negotiating a revision to the agreement) that the project schedule was extremely optimistic, and therefore likely to slip and cause overruns.

The record also includes an account of a meeting to discuss some report where NJT executives basically walked out and said they would do the report themselves.

The record also states that FTA tried to work with NJ so that the state wouldn't actually be on the hook for all the overruns, even going so far as to explore private funding.

Most info from the FTA's report on the decision: http://dng.northjersey.com/med...

Guest

great info, thanks a lot. i am watching this story unfold with great interest in seeing Christie get burnt by his bluster.

korper

Yeah, this is the same doofus whose administration lost out on $400M in federal education funds last year by ignoring repeated urgent requests from the Obama administration for a one-page document. (Then Christie turned around & blamed -- who else? -- Obama.) Nobody's accused the guy of being Einstein, but shouldn't the governor of a U.S. state at least understand Federal Funding 101?

unretrofiedforu

You forgot the '(R)' behind his name. That should answer a lot of questions.

S.D.

Genius... And when an 'Impartial judge' reads the law and decides against him, he'll add the legal bill to the tab.

QWEDCXZAS123

This fat fuck Christie's incompetence really gets under my skin..how anyone could even think of voting this douchebag president is beyond me

unretrofiedforu

Precisely. I thought your state gov't had no money, Christie? Why is it able to pursue the federal gov't for a measly $2xx million? What is $2xx million going to do in the face of a deficit in the billions?