From Burma-Shave to billboards in Times Square to the guys who tattoo radio station logos on their foreheads, man has a keen sense that the best and noblest way to make money is in advertising. So now that the New Jersey Transit trust fund is flat broke (with $34 billion needed in improvements over the next decade), the best thing for the state to do to raise revenue is to raise taxes slap a billboard on everything they own! All aboard the Gatorade Express to Preparation H Station!
The Star-Ledger reports that the state government would place ads on "bus, rail and light-rail equipment, stations, platforms, terminals," pretty much anything except for the employees themselves (although we're hoping that they encourage staff to change their names to Hangover 3 in exchange for pizza Fridays). Bidding between advertising companies has gotten so fierce, one has "filed a protest" against the state because it alleges that its offer of $65 million for the contract was rejected for one that was $53.3 million. Both companies would give NJ Transit "at least a 60 percent cut of the billings."
Not surprisingly, some egghead from The Brookings Institution takes issue with the whole plan, and using this horrific tone of voice that could be called "snark," suggests that the state "put cans, like the old March of Dimes cans, in every school classroom…if kids start putting their lunch money into these cans, we can rebuild our transit system and fight childhood obesity at the same time." Not funny! Besides, Chris Christie has already tried that with the education system.
