$200B lacks NY, NJ earmark
President Trump’s infrastructure plan calls for $200 billion in new federal spending, a speedy permitting process and a rural investment fund — but won’t give preference to the Gateway Program tunnel project, a top priority for New York and New Jersey.
“While we certainly aren’t opposed to talking about Gateway, we’re not going to start the discussion of rebuilding our entire nation with a single . . . project, especially not one where 90 percent of the benefits go to local transit riders,” a senior administration official told The Post.
Trump’s infrastructure plan — to be released Monday — would spend $200 billion to fix crumbling roads, bridges and railways, with the goal of spurring $1.5 trillion in total investment through public-private partnerships over ten years.
Trump also wants to speed up projects by limiting the environmental permitting process to two years. To cut down on delays and interagency conflicts, the plan would assign one agency to take the lead on permitting for each project, known as the “one agency, one decision” model.
While Trump’s plan would set aside $50 billion for rural infrastructure, it wouldn’t give special preference to projects with regional or national significance, such as the Gateway Program.
“Part of the problem with the old way of thinking about infrastructure is this focus on individual projects, when there are hundreds of projects around the country that need improvement and investment,” a senior White House official said.
The Gateway project, which is estimated to cost about $30 billion, would replace the Portal Bridge in New Jersey, build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River and rebuild the deteriorating North River Tunnels that carry Amtrak trains between New Jersey and Penn Station.
Democratic Gov. Cuomo and former NJ Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, had secured a bipartisan funding agreement with the administration of former President Barack Obama to split the costs — 50 percent federally funded and 50 percent funded by New York and New Jersey.
But the Trump administration deems the Obama-era agreement as “nonexistent.”
The states have said they are unable to complete the project without sizable federal investment.
“The governor is being briefed on the plan tomorrow by [White House economic adviser] Gary Cohn and will have a comment afterward,” said Cuomo spokeswoman Abbey Fashouer.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) expressed doubt that Trump’s plan will allow the Gateway project to get off the ground.
“I’m worried about the infrastructure bill because instead of the federal government doing what it’s done since 1820 — putting money to build highways, roads — they’re going to say ‘Let the private sector do it,’ ” Schumer said Sunday. “That will result in tolls, Trump Tolls I would call them, across the country, in highways that we now are able not to have tolls on.”