27:25A-2 Findings, declarations.

2. The Legislature finds and declares that:

a. It is the public policy of this State to provide for the coordinated development and planning of the State's transportation system both on the State and regional level. Through the medium of the Transportation Executive Council, established by Executive Order No. 10 of 1990, the activities of the various transportation related authorities are coordinated on the State level. In the northern region of the State the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission, the North Jersey Transportation Coordinating Committee and other organizations exist to provide for the support and planning of the transportation system in that region.

b. In the southern region of the State an increase in residential development, the completion of Interstate Route 476 (also known as the "Blue Route") in Pennsylvania, the establishment of casino gaming in Atlantic City, and other factors, have caused an increase in vehicular traffic in southern New Jersey and have highlighted the need for a more coordinated effort on a regional basis to deal with the operation and possible extension of the region's highway system, the improvement and expansion of its aviation facilities, and the coordination of Atlantic County's transportation system within the larger regional system.

c. Concomitant with the development of the transportation system in southern New Jersey the need exists for the ancillary establishment of economic development facilities directly related to transportation projects in that region to be funded by a transportation authority.

d. It is in the public interest to create a South Jersey Transportation Authority, encompassing the counties of Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem, as a successor to the New Jersey Expressway Authority and the Atlantic County Transportation Authority, to provide more coordination of the region's transportation system and to deal particularly with the highway system, aviation facilities and the transportation problems of Atlantic County through the acquisition, construction, maintenance, operation and support of expressway and transportation projects and economic development facilities directly related to transportation projects authorized by this act. However, the activities of a transportation authority are not to supplant or replace the funding of projects by the Transportation Trust Fund Authority or the operation of public transportation services by the New Jersey Transit Corporation.

L.1991, c.252, s.2; amended 2013, c.253, s.7.