in Trenton today budget hearings continue at the state house with the heads of New Jersey's major transportation agencies going before lawmakers New Jersey Transit in particular has an uphill battle the rail agency says its budget will be in the red in about a year if ridership doesn't return to pre-pandemic levels that means Fair hikes are on the table unless the government steps in senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan is at the state house with the latest you couldn't actually see a looming fiscal cliff in the state house meeting room but it's there in the pages of NJ transit's proposed budget with ridership still 25 percent off pre-covered levels and federal pandemic Aid running out fast this is an agency on the brink of a billion dollar shortfall possibly by 2025. this is largely due to year-over-year escalating contractual obligations reduced general fund subsidy and lagging Fair revenues due to lower ridership NJ Transit officials told the assembly budget committee its dire finances need some serious action so it's currently analyzing its own crisis agency execs are considering several fixes including corporate consolidation adjusting fares and realigning service fares haven't increased in almost a decade maintaining full frequent reliable service is key to getting people back and avoiding a death spiral where you reduce service to match ridership at that time which results in a continuous cycle of diminishing ridership and subsequent service cuts and service levels given the financial issues Republicans criticized the agency's decision to move its current headquarters to a more expensive lease at Gateway 2 in Newark and questioned whether politics had influenced the choice New Jersey transit's going to be facing as we were speaking earlier very difficult period of time in which tough financial decisions are going to have to be made at this time why are we looking at upsizing instead of downsizing I can say to you unequivocally I lose no sleep at night believing that that board made a decision anything other than what was the best decision for New Jersey Transit and its customers even before covet sent mass transit ridership off the rails NJ Transit couldn't rely on the fare box to make ends meet instead it's robbed Peter to pay Paul and it will again the next fiscal Year's 2.86 billion dollar operating budget again moves dollars from Capital to operating buckets it also grabs money from New Jersey's clean energy fund and gets another cash infusion from the New Jersey Turnpike it's getting 140 million in state subsidies through the next fiscal year 40 million more than usual finally it draws down all 800 million of its remaining Federal pandemic funds that one shot along with Fair's commercial revenue and some other reimbursements is a shaky funding platform we now according to Transit are going to have a billion dollar deficit in just a couple years hundreds of Millions in the dollars you cannot raise fares and cannot cut service and survive the legislature today should be focused on making sure that the state Appropriations are at a level that helps the agency not only just meet their mission but Thrive we need NJ transit to have robust service not only to meet our existing needs today but in order to meet any of our existing State Environmental goals it's going to be critical Advocates want a dedicated funding source like the surcharge on the corporate business tax that's due to sunset at the end of the year and Governor Murphy says he'll let it expire he's also said he'll fix NJ Transit if it kills him at the State House in Trenton I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news