Corzine won't veto plan to use bridge tolls for soccer stadium

Gov. Corzine will not use his veto power to block a $10 million grant by the Delaware River Port Authority for a soccer stadium complex in Chester, his spokeswoman said yesterday.

A day earlier, Corzine said the use of bridge tolls to help pay for construction of the $500 million stadium-business-residential complex was "not my first choice on where to put money." He said at the time that he would review the minutes of the DRPA meeting to determine if a veto was warranted.

Yesterday, spokeswoman Lilo Stainton said, "He is not going to veto the minutes."

The bistate DRPA, which is expected to raise tolls soon for bridge repairs, voted last month to move $10 million earmarked years ago for redevelopment at Penn's Landing to the Chester project. The money will not be used for the stadium, but for infrastructure improvements in the development, which is to include restaurants, businesses and housing.

DRPA officials say the $10 million would boost the project's chances for success and stimulate the economy of one of Pennsylvania's poorest cities.

Corzine's counsel, Edward J. McBride Jr., said yesterday that the governor saw the decision to shift the $10 million to the Chester project as "a legitimate alternative use."

He said Corzine would expect the Pennsylvania members of the DRPA board to support New Jersey projects, so he would not block the Pennsylvania project.

Some New Jersey drivers have objected to the use of toll money for the stadium complex and other redevelopment projects.

"The DRPA should not be funding soccer stadiums," Catherine L. Rossi, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said when the DRPA approved the expenditure. "It should be keeping our bridges in good repair."

The funding for the Chester project follows a decade of redevelopment spending that helped push the agency $1.2 billion into debt, requiring it to spend about 42 percent of its revenue on interest and principal.

Since 1999, the agency has spent $375 million to help build the Kvaerner (now Aker) Philadelphia Shipyard, Lincoln Financial Field, the Kimmel Center, the National Constitution Center, the New Jersey State Aquarium (now Adventure Aquarium), and dozens of other economic development projects.

The latest controversy comes as the agency prepares to take its case for higher bridge tolls to the commuting public.

In public meetings in the next few months, authority officials will lay out a plan for borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for repairs and improvements to bridges and the PATCO High-Speed Line. That money is expected to be repaid with higher tolls on the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross and Commodore Barry Bridges.

Tolls, now $3 for autos paid only by westbound motorists, could rise as much as $2.

About 82 percent of the authority's revenue comes from drivers who use the four bridges. The agency expects to take in about $238 million this year, $195 million of that in bridge tolls.