The NJDOT TMA Grant Program gives qualified TMAs up to $400,000 annually to carry out traffic reduction and clean air initiatives. These dollars have funded the implementation of important national and state mandates. They have given the TMAs a stable financial base, diminishing the need for private funds. These subsidies however, have necessarily moved the TMAs away from a private focus. Consequently, the TMAs have less motivation to champion the needs of their private and local constituents. Longterm viability of TMAs requires finding a midpoint between maintaining a vibrant entrepreneurial presence in the private sector and ensuring that grant funds contribute tostate goals and objectives efficiently and effectively. Although these objectives are not necessarily in conflict, they may sometimes appear to be, as the public agency, in requiring necessary accountability, directs TMAattention toward oversight and control.  To the TMAs this may appear to be a constraint on initiative and response.  However, in response to TMA calls for more financial flexibility, NJDOT has changed the grant program to allow the TMAs to decide the optimal allocation of grant funds.