Assemblyman Sean Connors Slams Gov. Christie for Amending Port Authority Transparency Bill

By • Jul 30th, 2012 • Category: Blog, News
LinkedInDeliciousDiggRedditStumbleUponPrintFriendlyShare

Additional oversight for the oft-criticized Port Authority has hit a wall after Governor Chris Christie conditionally vetoed the bipartisan Port Authority Transparency and Accountability Act by changing language that would have made the law apply to the authority.

The legislation, which was sponsored by a number of legislators including Jersey City Assemblyman Sean Connors, sought to better account for the financial doings of the authority after questionable practices related to overtime and toll hikes caused a stir among politicians and commuters.

“Once again, Governor Christie exhibits his do as I say not as I do style of governing. Now at a time when the residents’ faith in a more open and transparent government is questionable, Governor Christie slams the door on a more transparent and accountable Port Authority,” Connors said in a statement.

Senator Bob Gordon (D-Bergen/Passaic) and Assemblywoman Valerie Vanieri Huttle were the lead legislators sponsoring the bill.

“In effect, the governor announced that reform at the Port Authority will not happen under his watch,” Gordon said in a statement. “I would be happy to discuss with the governor additional reforms we can bring to New Jersey’s ‘shadow government.’ But we can’t let the Port Authority slip away scot-free, as the governor is letting it.”

“This is an insult to commuters who were hit with record toll hikes last year,” Huttle (D-Bergen) added in the statement. “There is no disputing that transparency and accountability should be applied to every government agency. In fact, the Assembly has already advanced similar legislation pertaining to other bi-state transportation authorities. But, by changing the language of this bill, the Governor has effectively killed any reforms at the Port Authority. It’s beyond puzzling as to why he would turn a blind eye to an agency with a $7 billion budget that affects millions of tri-state area commuters while making it a priority to crackdown on other authorities. The big question is why the Governor is continuing to protect the Port Authority instead of the hardworking commuters of this state?”

Indeed, the authority has been called a “patronage mill” for governors, and the AAA filed a suit at the beginning of the month in which they alleged the authority used toll money to help pay for the construction of a transportation hub at the World Trade Center where the PATH stop is located. Toll money cannot be used for funding this project according to federal law, and the AAA is requesting detailed financial information to demonstrate it hasn’t been.

The law would have specifically required open public meetings for the authority’s Board of Commissioners, public hearings for questions of toll hikes and fair increases, an audit of finances, as well as other means of keeping a closer watch on how the authority is spending its money.



Like what you've read here? Please consider making a donation or becoming a sustaining member. As a grassroots news organization, we rely on community support -- as well as paid advertising -- to survive.

is a staff writer for the Jersey City Independent.
Email this author | All posts by

  • ohyeahabsolutely

    This is the problem with “semi-autonomous” agencies like the Port Authority and the Jersey City Incinerator Authority: the people who fund them have absolutely zero authority when it comes to oversight and budgeting. The governor, or the mayor, respectively, can use it to enrich his friends and family and campaign contributors, let the agency go wildly over budget, and still have the protection of “semi-autonomy” to use as a screen when the sh*t hits the fan. 

    Just as the JCIA is simply a big cash cow for friends of Healy, Cunningham and Viola Richardson, the Port Authority is a billion dollar cow that Christie can feed off of at will, without having to answer to the state legislature. 

    Can anyone explain what, exactly, are the benefits of having these semi-autonomous agencies? 

    • AlCaponeForMayor

      Autonomous agencies are the equivalent of “Black Ops” in the CIA. You can bury money, get jobs for your friends, girlfriend,boyfriend, or family, have secret budgets, fund operations, payoff “other”agencies and preferred contractors, give city cars to all your buddies and yourself, use city gasoline, vote yourself a 5 year contract with benefits for life that survives even beyond the end of the agency, file expense reports for buying a bagel with cream cheese, you name it. And none of it is subject to taxpayer oversight. It is basically an SPV or SPE (special purpose vehicle or entity) for the administration, a BLACK HOLE.. For those with short memories, prior to the big crash of 2007-2008, SPV’s were companies set up in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens, by banks and corporations on whose balance sheet LOSSES were placed. 
      By doing this, these losses were then kept off the balance sheet of the main corporation or bank, which was then able to inflate it’s “profits” and wash cash back and forth.
      Sometimes a loss comes back to bite you though, like the recent $7 MILLION bill from Waste Management to JCIA for garbage pickup.

      Sound like an episode of the Sopranos?

  • AlCaponeForMayor

    These agencies have to go. Have to. They are circumventing tax payer and city council oversight and bankrupting the city.  Its that simple. Governor Christie should step in here the way he did with the Passaic County Sewerage Commissioners and call for the resignation of all top management