By Post Editorial Board
March 19, 2017 | 8:55pm
Think the Port Authority is slow and dysfunctional now? Watch what happens if lawmakers OK Gov. Cuomo’s demand for a new “New York” inspector general/prosecutor for the PA. A wooly mammoth trapped in a tar pit would move faster.
That became clear over the past two weeks amid a wave of scathing criticism — and not just from the New Jersey side of the bi-state agency.
Cuomo’s IG would be installed by — and answer to — him alone, with the power to prosecute crimes that affect New York. But a resolution in the Jersey Senate calls that “patently illegal.” Its Office of Legislative Services concludes the PA would “have no obligation to comply.”
So, expect the idea to be dragged into court, tying up vital agency business, possibly for years. That would slow or freeze a host of vital, multibillion-dollar projects, from airport renovation to a new Hudson rail tunnel.
In a letter to lawmakers, six PA commissioners (including Ken Lipper, who was tapped by Cuomo himself) say the gov wants “dictatorial” control over the PA by gaining the power to threaten prosecution. They say some of them would quit, along with top managers, if the IG were OK’d.
https://nypost.com/2017/03/19/cuomos-no-win-port-authority-power-grab/
