THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

The state of New Jersey is facing a large financial problem, above and beyond the governor's legal bills. It faces huge transportation expenses with a matching shortfall of funds to pay for it. So the talk of Trenton is to raise the gasoline tax which in New Jersey is as famously low as North Carolina tobacco taxes.

A new proposal from leading Democrats is forcing a showdown with Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who has resisted calls to increase prices at the pump even as the state’s transportation trust fund is set to run out of money at the end of the month. Under the proposal, the tax could rise by about 23 cents a gallon, bringing it closer to what neighboring states collect.

The fate of New Jersey’s dwindling transportation funding has been entangled in recent years with Mr. Christie’s political ambitions. Even as the state’s bridges and roads are falling apart and New Jersey Transit is struggling with a series of financial problems, he has avoided tackling the issue.

But state lawmakers now face a confluence of factors that could make an increase possible: a pressing deadline, gas prices hovering near $2 a gallon and growing contempt in New Jersey for Mr. Christie, whose office recently denied a report that the governor had become a McDonald’s-fetching “manservant” for Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

“We are very much in crisis if this thing shuts down,” Stephen M. Sweeney, a Democrat and the State Senate president, said, referring to the transportation trust fund.

The transportation funding proposal announced in New Jersey this month included a sweetener meant to attract Republican votes: the repeal of the state’s estate tax, which kicks in at a lower amount than in many other states.

Even with that concession, Mr. Christie, who has about a year and a half left in office, said he opposed the proposal. He described part of the plan that would increase transportation aid to counties and municipalities as a “payoff” by Democrats to local officials. But despite his characteristically blunt rhetoric, the governor appeared open to negotiation.

“There is a lot of work that needs to be done,” Mr. Christie told reporters last week. “There is a lot of show-me that has to be done. But as you know, at the end of any session, miracles happen.”

Several Republican lawmakers have already expressed support for the proposal. Democrats, who control both the Senate and the Assembly, hope to pull together enough votes to override a potential Christie veto.

The legislature will pass the increase, hopefully with enough votes to override the Jersey Whale's veto. Or maybe, in return for letting him build the Trump Trenton hotel, Donny will send JW out for a Yuge McDonald's order so the bill can become law without him.