Early in October, New Gov. Chris Christie (R, of course) canceled a rail tunnel project under the Hudson:
[Christie canceled] the largest public works project in the U.S., a commuter train tunnel between northern New Jersey and New York City. Christie's rationale was simple: The cash-strapped state, which has the fourth highest debt per capita, cannot afford it. Daily Finance 9 Oct
Now the government wants its money back:
New Jersey must repay the U.S. government $271 million immediately for money spent on the proposed Hudson River rail tunnel that Governor Chris Christie canceled, a Federal Transit Administration official said. Bloomberg
Oops.
And there will be more bills:
The state will also owe "reasonable interest and penalty charges that will be determined by FTA," wrote Brigid Hynes- Cherin, FTA’s regional administrator in New York, in a letter yesterday to James Weinstein, executive director of New Jersey Transit. New Jersey lost its claim on another $79 million earmarked for the project, she said. ...
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said after the cancellation Oct. 27 that New Jersey would have to repay the federal government as much as $350 million for initial work.
The move was popular with New Jerseyans back then:
While believing the tunnel could be important to the state’s economic development, 51 percent of Garden State voters think Christie was right to cancel the project, while 39 percent disagree with the decision, and 10 percent are unsure. Rutgers 29 Oct
Maybe not so much now.
Christie's action was in line with general conservative distaste for mass transit (Margaret Thatcher didn't like railroads either), and was a harbinger of post-election moves by GOP governors-elect in Wisconsin and Ohio. As with most GOP ideas these days, it is shortsighted not just in the immediate costs to the states in having to pay back federal money already spent, but in stifling future growth:
The new, multibillion-dollar [Hudson river] tunnel will be vitally important to the economic prosperity of the region -- indeed, the entire state. Its impact will be felt in an estimated 45,000 permanent jobs created, the increasing property values from transit-oriented development in communities served by rail, and in cleaner air as thousands of cars are kept off the roads. Philly.com 13 Oct
So, how's that fiscal conservatism thingy workin' out for ya?