Top Christie Port Authority appointees devised toll-hike plan in 2011 to bolster image of NJ, NY governors
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY MARCH 1, 2014, 11:53 PM
BY SHAWN BOBURG
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Years before they resigned amid a scandal over politically motivated lane closures at the George Washington Bridge, Governor Christie’s top two executives at the Port Authority led a secretive campaign to quickly push through controversial toll hikes on the Hudson River bridges and tunnels by drowning out criticism, limiting public input and portraying the governors of New York and New Jersey as fiscal hawks who reined in an out-of-control agency.
At its heart was a plan to have the Port Authority, an independent bi-state agency, propose an enormous toll hike — a $6 increase that would bring the E-ZPass toll to $14 by 2014 — so that the governors could then scale it back. The smaller increases that were ultimately approved in 2011 — $4.50 over four years — allowed both governors to claim credit while they set the stage for each state to claim hundreds of millions of dollars to fund pet projects not directly related to the Port Authority.
It was a sleight of hand that began with a campaign-style operation that, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen people familiar with the operation, was run out of a conference room on the southwest corner of the 15th floor of the Port Authority’s Manhattan headquarters.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/Christie_appointees_at_Port_Authority_led_a_secret_toll-hike_push.html#sthash.W3PeBZ0T.dpuf
Big deal.
I know the Record will do anything in its grasp to come up with something negative about this Governor.
Why don’t they just blame him for Pearl Harbor?
This is another ‘non-event’, not ‘newsworthy’ piece of trash.
Every toll hike and subway fare increase has followed this script. This is not news at all. It was clear the fix was in when the unattendable meetings were held
What’s new here? This is exactly how Christie does things. He loads all of his Town Hall meetings with supporters too. When a few opponents got in he had to do his bullying routine, so now that he wants to be Ghandi, he has to make sure he only has boot lickers in the crowd. Even the Sandy survivors down the shore who have been screwed by him and his administration barely put up a whisper of complaint.
The state ‘senator’ Loretta Wienburg has friends in the media obviously and will do anything to negatively portray any republican.
Maybe they should do a real story on how the Democrats who ruled this state for decades screwed up the finances, which future generations will be stuck with.
the fat man new it all.