In fall 2010, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie killed an $8.7 billion project to put a new tunnel under the Hudson River between the Garden State and New York City to increase passenger rail capacity.
Christie said his transportation engineers told him the cost had gone up to $11 billion to $14 billion and that New Jersey could get stuck with $5 billion in over-runs. This month, a federal Government Accountability Office issued a report saying the estimate had been the same for two years.
Christie said New Jersey would get hit for 70% of the total bill. The GAO said it would have been 14.4%. Christie stood his ground.
After the report came out, The New York Times reported, Christie said in a speech, "So when they want to build a tunnel to the basement of Macy’s, and stick the New Jersey taxpayers with a bill of three-to-five billion dollars over – no matter how much the administration yells and screams, you have to say 'no,'"
Christie is a Republican with a reputation for cost-cutting. The GAO audit was done at the request of Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat and one of the state's U.S. senators.
