When you can direct Billion dollar Funds like this, on just your signatures -- would you subject your 'deep pockets' benefactor to public oversight and transparent accounting?
Not if your name is Christie or Cuomo, you wouldn't ...
New York, New Jersey Governors Veto Port Authority Changes
Govs. Christie and Cuomo Issue Their Own Recommendations Saturday Night
by Andrew Tangel, Heather Haddon and Josh Dawsey, wsj.com -- Dec. 27, 2014
The governors of New York and New Jersey said they were vetoing bills passed by their states’ legislatures that sought changes at the agency at the center of the George Washington Bridge scandal in September 2013.
Instead, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Saturday night proposed their own prescription for fixing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the bistate agency that they both control.
[...]
“The fact that the two governors together tried to turn their backs on two legislatures in two states is to me very disappointing,” she said [Loretta Weinberg, New Jersey Senate Majority Leader].
Instead, the governors will turn to recommendations made after months of behind-the-scenes work by a so-called Special Panel on the Future of the Port Authority. The five-member panel included John Degnan, Mr. Christie’s pick for the agency’s chairman, and Scott Rechler, a Cuomo appointee who is vice chairman.
[...]
How convenient! Considering how Rechler was
David Samson's right hand man, not so very long ago.
Who needs real reform, when you have a real Piggy Bank, you can use to payback your political patrons, and polish up your pathetically failing Tax policies?
If your name is Christie or Cuomo, you would choose the Bank!
Why Christie and Cuomo kneecapped reform of Port Authority: Moran
by Tom Moran, Star-Ledger Editorial Board, nj.com -- Dec 29, 2014
[...]
The bills the two governors killed in their Saturday night massacre was a modest bit work, full of apple-pie reforms like requiring commissioners to follow standard rules on ethics, hold open meetings and release public records.
They won unanimous approval in the legislatures of both states. This was supposed to be the easy part, the first step towards a bigger reform next year.
[...]
To them, the Port Authority is a pot of gold in tough budget times, and a source of patronage for political friends. Its budget is bigger than 26 states, and the money is spent without legislative approval, just the signatures of the governors themselves.
Why would they want to change that? Christie has avoided raising the gas tax by diverting billions of dollars in toll money for projects like rebuilding the Pulaski Skyway. He set records for patronage, putting more than 50 of his friends in cushy Port Authority jobs.
[...]
Chris Christie got to the "
bottom of it" alright -- just like he promised.
It's just that he didn't tell us "it" -- was the endless supply of the public's patience, and the public funds of the New York and New Jersey Port Authority.