NJBIA’s Siekerka: NJ Infrastructure Dialogue Must Include Water, Sewer And Energy—Not Just Transportation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 30, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Michele Siekerka, president and CEO of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, praised the state Senate for yesterday’s approval of three bills funding and improving the Environmental Infrastructure Trust (EIT).

The Environmental Infrastructure Trust is an independent state financing authority responsible for providing and administering low-interest loans to counties, municipalities and regional authorities. The loans finance water quality infrastructure projects that enhance ground and surface water resources. Two of the bills approved yesterday provide more than a half-billion dollars in financing for projects.

“The Environmental Infrastructure Trust has been a very successful means of financing important water projects,” said Siekerka. “As we contemplate a system for financing transportation projects, we should look to replicating a new funding mechanism that is similar to EIT. After all, the transportation trust fund in its current state is broken. A new revolving loan mechanism, like EIT, would provide lowinterest loans only for the purposes for which it is intended.

“We also must expand our discussion about infrastructure in New Jersey,” Siekerka said.

“Transportation is not the only infrastructure in need of repair. Improvements in water, sewer, energy and telecommunications are also critical to ensuring that New Jersey businesses can thrive and grow.

In addition to the EIT appropriations legislation, a third bill makes consumer-friendly changes in the EIT’s lending structure. The bill provides for an extension of loan maturity terms from 20 years to 30 years; will allow municipalities to borrow short-term funds (up to three years) from EIT during a project’s construction phase at variable rates; and will allow the trust to borrow short-term funds from private banks to fund and implement the cost-saving, line of credit lending program.

“These practical enhancements will create more flexibility and even greater cost-savings for the end user,” said Siekerka, “which in turn should equate to increased opportunities for funding critically needed infrastructure projects.”