In a story in today's New York Times, Gov. Corzine appeared to want to bring back some form of his wildly unpopular "asset monetization" plan, which involved raising tolls by 800 percent over 14 years to raise money for transportation projects, state debt reduction and open space preservation. The plan was so poorly received by both lawmakers and the public that Corzine cut short a planned 21-county road show to pitch the proposal directly to the public.

"This idea worked," Corzine was quoted by the newspaper as saying. "So maybe we just need to scale it back."

At a press conference this morning, after what seemed like every Republican official in the state had sent out a press release condemning the possibility of a new toll hike plan, Corzine said the newspaper's characterization was inaccurate. Asked if he believed the toll plan should be brought back, Corzine said, according to a transcript provided by the administration, "No! No toll increases, no leasing. Off the table. Not gonna happen. Period!”

Asked if the Grey Lady got it wrong, Corzine said, "They got it wrong because they focused on the fact that we may raise money out of our rest stops on properties that surround the turnpike. No toll increases...no leasing of the turnpike. Off the table, not happening, period! And you know I think if you read that article you will also see that Mr. Christie has backed away from every single promise that he talked about during the campaign, particularly during the primary, about how he was gonna roll back the sales tax, how we was gonna increase rebates, how he was gonna put more money into school funding. All of those things are out the window."

That doesn't mean tolls won't increase in New Jersey, though. Last year, Corzine approved toll hikes of about 50 percent for both the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, which will take effect in 2012.

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