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Radio rage: How Joe from Brick feels about gas-tax hike

EWING, N.J. - For a good three hours Tuesday morning, the conservative radio host was filling the airwaves with invective against the proposed gas-tax hike, ripping into a deal brokered in the "middle of the night" by Gov. Christie and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto.

EWING, N.J. - For a good three hours Tuesday morning, the conservative radio host was filling the airwaves with invective against the proposed gas-tax hike, ripping into a deal brokered in the "middle of the night" by Gov. Christie and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto.

Then, during a commercial break from Bill Spadea's four-hour morning show on New Jersey 101.5 FM came some interesting news: The governor had reached out to the station's news director.

"That was the first time in six years Christie has ever called me to say, 'What should I do about this?' " Eric Scott informed Spadea, briefly interrupting an interview with a reporter.

"No kidding. How about that," the host replied, adding: "That'll be a good story."

New Jersey is nothing if not a state on wheels with a phone attached to its left ear. In a state with among the highest property taxes in the nation, and a total tax burden that Forbes ranks among the heaviest, the low tax on gasoline is an outlier, and a proposal to raise it for the first time in more than 25 years is prompting an outcry from some quarters.

Spadea's show has become something of a vehicle for motorists' angst - commuters account for 60 percent of his listeners. And at least on this particular day, a program and an audience that once embraced Christie now feels jilted by someone who had promised to change Trenton's ways.

There is something distinctly New Jerseyan about the gas-tax debate, much like the George Washington Bridge scandal was almost comical because it transformed a fact of Garden State life - traffic jams - into an alleged criminal conspiracy.

Graham from Little Egg Harbor calls in at 9:10 a.m. "The reason Christie's going along with it is because basically he's a lame duck," he says.

"No matter whether Trump wins or not, he's going to be well taken care of," Graham says, referring to Christie's high-profile endorsement of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

"This is not about fixing roads and bridges," declares Joe of Brick. "It's about greed."

Jim, 63, of Toms River, writes in an email to the station, "I can't support Christie any longer."

No one seems comforted by the proposal by Christie and Prieto (D., Hudson) to reduce the sales tax from 7 percent to 6 percent by the time the governor leaves office in January 2018, or by a boost to the income-tax exemption for seniors' retirement income.

Christie says families on average would save several hundred dollars a year under legislation that passed the Assembly just before 1 a.m. Tuesday. The governor held a news conference Wednesday to urge the reluctant Senate to advance the legislation Thursday.

The only headline that seems to matter to 101.5's listeners: Christie has struck a backroom deal to more than double the gas tax, from 14.5 cents per gallon to 37.5 cents.

Spadea, 47, is a Phillies fan who grew up in Cherry Hill and ran for Congress in 2004. He replaced New Jersey radio legend Jim Gearhart in December as the new morning host.

He has railed against the proposed tax hike for weeks, comparing Republicans in favor of it to villains like Darth Vader, urging his 1.1-million-a-week audience to inundate legislators with phone calls and tweets (he provides their office phone numbers and Twitter handles), and generally irking lawmakers who see him as a hack who plays loose with facts.

"8:39 on New Jersey 101.5. Good morning, I'm Bill Spadea!...

"So they snuck us, middle of the night," he says. "We were sleeping. Boom! Your taxes went up and you didn't even know it. That's a Jersey wake-up call."

A few minutes later, he says, "It is beyond me why Gov. Christie felt the need to come out of his office and embrace Vincent Prieto and give us a new tax."

He complains that the sales tax cut wouldn't be fully implemented for 18 months.

Traffic break: 30- to 45-minute delays to the Hudson River crossing. NJ Transit delays of at least 15 minutes to Penn Station. Traffic jams on I-95 westbound out of the Robbinsville area toward Yardville.

It's no surprise that motorists don't want to pay more at the pump. However, Christie's five-year transportation-funding plan expires when the fiscal year ends Friday. Money is needed to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund, which finances construction and maintenance of roads, bridges, and the state's rail system.

All existing gas-tax revenue goes toward debt service. If the gas-tax increase is enacted, voters would be asked to dedicate all new revenues to transportation needs.

Some lawmakers believe Spadea misses the nuances.

"That 101.5, that guy's not even a little bit honest about what he's saying," says Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester).

"I just don't think Bill understands the importance of the bills, really understands the details of the bills," says Sen. Steve Oroho (R., Sussex), a Spadea target. "They're complicated."

The station generally has a friendly rapport with Christie, who periodically appears on its Ask the Governor program. But its commentators have a history of shaking things up in Trenton.

Their outrage over tax hikes in the early 1990s helped stir voter resentment, boot Gov. Jim Florio from office, and flip control of the Legislature to Republicans.

Florio's taxes "had this beautiful imagery, which now we would call a meme, of the toilet-paper roll," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. "That was really what people could rally around. 'You're raising taxes on toilet paper?' "

While polling shows a majority of residents oppose the gas tax, Murray said: "It's not a visceral, gut level, dyed-in-the-wool opposition that says we're going to take it out on any legislator that voted for it at the next election, which is what happened in 1991."

As for Christie's contacting the station, a spokesman said the governor's office wanted to learn the call-in number for the Spadea show because Christie may want to "correct the record" on the tax debate.

aseidman@phillynews.com

856-779-3846 @AndrewSeidman