New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is under fire — again — for one of his soundest decisions since he took office: deep-sixing that hugely unaffordable commuter tunnel beneath the Hudson.
This time he’s being attacked by the feds.
And the US Senate.
And The New York Times.
That alone is pretty strong evidence that he’s in the right.
This week, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) sicced the Government Accountability Office on Christie, a bitter political rival, who nipped the multibillion-dollar tunnel boondoggle in the bud just 18 short months ago.
Christie argued back then that Jersey couldn’t afford its end of the tunnel’s $14 billion tab — a hefty 70 percent of the total. By backing out, he was also able to avoid hiking the state’s gasoline tax.
Cue the GAO, which basically calls Christie a liar. The feds claim Jersey only had to cover 14 percent of costs — and that the tunnel was a mere $8.7 billion.
The Times dutifully reported the same.
But a nitty-gritty accounting of the tunnel and its side projects, which the GAO misleadingly excluded, puts Jersey’s share at 65.5 percent — far closer to Christie’s figure.
And the Times has the truth buried deep in its own story: “Federal officials argued, six weeks before Mr. Christie canceled the project, that it might cost $13.7 billion.”
Even that was a rosy estimate — this was federal guesswork on a Port Authority project; costs would’ve kept inflating, like they did during the PA’s work at Ground Zero.
So Christie’s decision was common sense squared, then and now. Jersey voters supported his choice by a 53-37 percent margin, according to Quinnipiac pollsters.
Another round of applause for the gov.