Lawmaker wants meeting with Christie on road funding

The speaker of New Jersey’s General Assembly is calling for a meeting between Gov. Chris Christie and top lawmakers to hash out a deal on funding road, rail and bridge projects across the state.

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto said Wednesday that it’s becoming pointless to try to build veto-proof majorities for a new transportation-funding plan that Christie opposes.

The Democrat’s call comes after Christie ordered a shutdown of most transit projects funded by the state’s Transportation Trust Fund, which is out of money.

A state Senate plan would raise the gas tax by 23 cents per gallon. The plan would cover $2 billion in transit projects.

But Christie says other tax cuts in the plan don’t provide enough relief to offset the higher gas tax.