“That’s so ridiculous we’re not gonna discuss it.”
“I don’t appreciate your telling me I’m about to vote on something illegal.”
“Just sit tight.”
“Let me finish.”
“Keep it to yourself.”
No, that’s not Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. It’s the people who run New York and New Jersey’s Port Authority transportation system fighting at last week’s PA board meeting.
Behind the arguing is a real disaster. Govs. Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie will leave the Port Authority in worse shape than during Bridgegate — and leave commuters in worse conditions than when the two men took office.
The Port Authority runs the airports, plus the West Side bus terminal and bridge and tunnel crossings between the two states.
Parts of the airports, and the whole bus terminal, are in bad condition. So the Port Authority has to spend billions to fix them. Plus, the Port has to come up with $10 billion for a new tunnel under the Hudson for train commuters.
But the Port doesn’t have infinite cash. The authority already spends nearly $864 million annually on its $25.4 billion debt, much of it for the World Trade Center.
People can only spend so much to drive or fly, which is how the Port pays these interest costs.
So Cuomo and Christie have a choice: Rein in wasteful spending, or leave commuters paying more for an even worse trip.
Guess which they’re choosing?
At least week’s smackdown of a board meeting, Christie and Cuomo appointees made clear that the poisonous politics that got us an almost entirely decorative $4 billion PATH station downtown — and got us Bridgegate, too — are still holding commuters hostage.
The two governors’ men manage to turn the one part of this that’s easy into something that creates a mess.
To wit: Cuomo has wanted to rebuild LaGuardia since he took office. The airlines that use the airport are on board; they’re willing to pay the $4 billion cost.
And the Port has found a group of private companies willing to take the responsibility of doing the project on time and on budget.
A vital project that pays for itself and that companies will invest in: What could go wrong?
New Jersey politics. The “Jersey” side of the Port Authority thinks the airport is a New York project — so they want something big, too.
“The interests of our two states differ,” said PA Chairman John Degnan, a Christie appointee.
That’s not correct. Everyone uses the airport. It helps the New York business that employs New Jersey residents.
Nevertheless, Jersey wants its take. First, a $2.3 billion airport project at Newark.
But Newark doesn’t need it as badly: It’s only operating at 5 percent over passenger capacity, while LaGuardia is at 75 percent over capacity.
It would be wiser to wait. As Cuomo appointee Scott Rechler said, “We have a capital plan that can’t support all the projects that we have in there.”
It’s Jersey’s second ask, though, that’s really outrageous. The state got the board to promise to pay for a new West Side bus terminal, even though the board members admitted that they have no idea how much the terminal will cost.
When Port Authority director Pat Foye, another Cuomo guy, ventured to question whether promising as much as $15 billion to a new terminal was smart considering all of the other stuff the Port has to do, Degnan told him to “keep it to yourself . . . If other projects have to be deleted . . . the bus terminal’s in there.”
Yes, we need a terminal.
But never do even the most dysfunctional agencies approve projects before having some clue of what they’ll cost.
And obviously, when you say you’ll spend everything you have, that’s how much it will cost. A blank check presents opportunities for frivolity and corruption — like at the PATH station downtown.
You can blame Christie for a lot of this.
Where he once used the Port Authority for politics and patronage, now he’s checked out completely — leaving his appointees to please the New Jersey Legislature, which may be even worse.
But Cuomo’s to blame, too. He doesn’t want delays to LaGuardia — and so he’s letting New Jersey take advantage. Now, the airport will cost a lot of money in what Rechler called “horse-trading.”
But when you trade horses, you at least get a price on the horses first.
Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.