with the clock ticking toward a budget deadline Transit Advocates are ramping up the pressure on lawmakers to take action on the governor's proposed corporate Transit fee which would tax the state's businesses with the highest income to provide a dedicated source of funding for New Jersey Transit as it stares down a massive budget Gap next year but it comes amid a growing course of calls for a different controversial source for that Revenue senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports on the likelihood that any tax could be p pass before the June 30th deadline tax the rich not the poor advocacy groups are increasing their calls for the governor and legislature to act in these last days of budget negotiations their calls for the Governor's proposed corporate Transit fee to be dedicated as a permanent funding source for NJ Transit New Jersey Transit which is not a business it's a public service should not be funded on the backs of Working Families the corporate Transit fee would increase the corporate business tax by 25% for businesses that profit more than $10 million a year it comes on the heels of Governor Murphy eliminating the previous corporate business tax on companies profiting a million dollars a year but while it's being debated Riders are facing a 15% Fair hike that'll start next month a lot of our residents are relying on transportation to get to these Metropolitan job job areas and without transportation they can't get there they're already suffering from inflation high taxes and so they cannot afford to pay for the kind of change and enhancements that we need to this train system upgrades aside NJ transit's operational budget is facing a looming $800 million shortfall next year Transportation assets mean nothing if we're not supporting the people who ride them and supporting the service that makes it a functional system Advocates say the timing is critical because NJ transit's budget needs to be determined by April and so with about a third of their overall budget looming as a deficit they say the entire system could crumble if this funding source isn't dedicated now if we don't have this where's the money going to come from and uh there's no again there's no plan B but there is another idea floating around Trenton raising the sales tax back up to 7% assembly Republican leader John Deo says no we don't need to raise a new tax now we need to be more efficient the way we carried out the operations so how would he fund NJ Transit next year we really ought to audit their operations and and see exactly what they're doing before they come looking for money for example the governor this year took money out of places that were it really money shouldn't come go from and I'm sure in that budget document there are priorities of his own in there hidden one of Murphy's priorities that was widely criticized today is the turnpike expansion near the Holland Tunnel mayor Ravi Bala one of its loudest critics saying those funds could be rerouted to NJ Transit we have the governor who has a 11 billion boondoggle to expand the New Jersey Turnpike you got $1 billion in your back pocket that could be used to eliminate a 15% Fair hike what sense does that make making it harder for mass transit and easier to drive a car business and industry advocates have loudly decried the new corporate tax saying it'll hurt New Jersey's economy and its competitiveness with other states in spite of the fact that most of the businesses that would be taxed don't reside in New Jersey but timing is an issue for lawmakers because both the legislature and governor's office will face elections next year this is the year to get the heavy lifting done plus says Michael rasmon as negotiations go the governor's likely earn some Goodwill with the Senate President and assembly speaker by pass their Oprah Bill Assuming he's flexible and everything else and he's done his part on Oprah he ate that one um that he gets his piece that's important to him which is to finally fund Transit lawmakers have 18 days to decide and no sponsor no bill has yet been introduced in nework I'm Joanna Gagis for NJ SpotlightNews