this is just a reminder that the turnpike authority is a completely separate entity from the department of transportation and does not take in any state tax money. it issues its own bonds and designs its own projects and pays for all of this with your ever increasing tolls. this isn't passing a value judgement on how money is spent (although it's time for the njta to take a serious look at how it budgets things), but before you come in hot with "for that amount of money, we could have x, y, and z!" remember that the njta for its faults is a self sustaining thing so this isn't taking money away from another project that you think matters more.