Port Authority reform override rescheduled for March 16th
Senate vote to override Gov. Chris Christie’s veto of legislation aimed at reforming an embattled Port Authority has been tentatively rescheduled from March 5th to March 16th, one of the bill sponsors has informed PolitickerNJ.
S-2181, meant to bring greater transparency to the bi-state agency, was vetoed by Christie last year after unanimously passing both the Senate and the Assembly. Democrats pushing the reform measure had originally planned a vote to override that veto in early March, using these last few months to garner Republican support. (Brush/PolitickerNJ)
More calls for reform of Port Authority; N.J. legislators criticize heavy overtime
December 26, 2014, 11:18 PM Last updated: Saturday, December 27, 2014, 10:13 AM
By JOHN REITMEYER, DUSTIN RACIOPPI and ABBOTT KOLOFF
staff writers |
The Record
Staggering amounts of overtime at the Port Authority, especially in the police ranks, underscore widespread mismanagement and the need for greater oversight of the bi-state agency, which has come under critical scrutiny since the George Washington Bridge lane-closings scandal last year, state lawmakers said Friday.
The reactions followed a report by The Record that 131 agency employees, most of them police officers, earned so much overtime pay through September that they more than doubled their salaries. Thirteen officers earned more than the executive director, whose annual salary is $289,000, with the top 10 overtime earners, all police, averaging an estimated 46 hours of overtime per week.
“It just points out another example of the lack of management that has gone on there over the last number of years,” said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, the Teaneck Democrat who is co-chairwoman of the joint legislative committee investigating the 2013 bridge lane closures. She said that “people just don’t function if they’ve worked too many hours straight.”
Not just tolls: E-Z Pass keeping an eye on speeders
Warning to motorists: Don’t speed in the toll lanes. E-Z Pass is watching.
Several states, including New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania, say they monitor speeds through the fast pass toll lanes and will suspend your E-Z Pass for multiple speeding violations.
In all, five of the 15 E-Z Pass states have some kind of rules on the books for breaking the speed limit in the convenience lanes.
“You can lose your E-Z Pass privileges if you speed through E-Z Pass lanes,” says Dan Weiller, director of communications for the New York State Thruway Authority. “You get a couple of warnings. We don’t have the power to give a ticket, but we do have to power to revoke your E-Z Pass, which we will.”
He and tolling officials in several other states say the issue is the safety of human toll collectors. “At most toll barriers, we have a mix of E-Z Pass lanes and standard toll lanes,” Weiller says.
Reader Says No to the Gas Tax Increase : NJ actually has, according to the Feds, the eighth highest annual revenues to devote to roads and bridges of any state.
Funny how some on this blog want to raise gasoline taxes. The Federal Highway Administration tracks all revenues collected by states for use on transportation. The two main sources are the gas tax and tolls. NJ gasoline taxes are low, but the state’s toll collections rank second in the nation behind only the much larger New York. The result is that NJ actually has, according to the Feds, the eighth highest annual revenues to devote to roads and bridges of any state. And yet the NJ Transportation Fund is bust? Why you ask? According to a 2013 study by the Reason Foundation, NJ spends 8.4 TIMES the national average for every mile of road it maintains or builds… it’s not because of the low gas tax, it’s because of inflated union wage rates to build & maintain roads at 8X the national average. No wonder Senator Sanzari, I mean Sarlo, wants to raise gas taxes. Vote him out, recall him, whatever, the guy is a pure thug
Tolls Set to Increase as Port Authority unveils proposed $7.8B budget
DECEMBER 2, 2014, 6:28 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014, 6:34 PM
BY SHAWN BOBURG
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Days before tolls on Hudson River crossings are set to rise again, the Port Authority on Tuesday released a proposed spending plan for 2015 that relies heavily on those tolls to pay for upgrades to some of the region’s airports, rail lines, roadways and the World Trade Center.
The $7.8 billion overall budget — larger than that of approximately a dozen U.S. states — is about $400 million less than what the agency spent in 2014, mostly due to a significant drop in spending to rebuild the World Trade Center, which is taking shape and will start bringing in office rental revenues in 2015.
That may come as little comfort to motorist who will see the fourth toll hike in as many years starting Dec. 6. Cash tolls will rise $1, to $15, while E-ZPass rates will rise $0.75, to $12.50 during peak hours and $10.50 at off-peak times. It is estimated that an additional $100 million will be collected at the bridges and tunnels in 2015 compared with this year.
The agency’s 2015 budget will be voted on by commissioners at their Dec. 10 meeting.
The agency plans to spend $2.9 billion on day-to-day operations—a 1.8 percent increase over this year. The agency said Tuesday that it was the ninth consecutive year that it had kept its operating budget at or below the annual rate of inflation. That is despite adding hundreds of new officers to a police force that is expected to number 1,840 in 2015, the largest it has been in at least a decade.
Degnan: ‘We’ll do whatever the legislatures tell us to’ , yea I’ll believe it when I see it
NEW YORK, NY – Even here, standing on the sidewalk outside the entrance to 7 World Trade Center in this bustling metropolis, newly-minted Chairman John Degnan’s enthusiasm for reform at an embattled Port Authority comes across strong. (Brush/PolitickerNJ)
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