panynj

A report by Navigant, management consultants says that the Port Authority New York New Jersey (PANYNJ) is poorly managed with high turnover at the executive director level and long entrenched people below in "silos" or separate business empires covering airports, the port, toll tunnels and bridges, a NY-NJ transit system PATH, and the World Trade Center (WTC) and other smaller commercial real estate.

Patrick Foye, chief executive at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) says the law suits by their pensioners to maintain lifetime toll-free privileges are "offensive." Playing hardball he has asked New York and New Jersey tax agencies to investigate whether the pensioners owe the two states taxes on the value of these "perks." And whether they should be charged interest and tax penalties for failing to declare their taxable value.

Today is the 80th birthday of the George Washington bridge (GWB) - it opened to traffic 1931-10-25.  Designed by Swiss immigrant engineer Othmar Ammann it "stands high above the Hudson River, its eastern end resting on the shores of Manhattan, its western end embedded in the wooded bluffs of New Jersey's Palisades."

Port Authority NYNJ police have caught a trucker at the George Washington Bridge toll plaza trying to evade tolls with a jerry-rigged license plate hoist cable. 36 year old Nelson Vaquiz who lives just north of Richmond VA, and owner-driver of an 18-wheeler, is free on $5,000 bail after being pulled over and charged with theft of services, possession of burglary tools, and eluding arrest.

Friday August 19 was Capitulation Day at the Port Authority New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ).

The Port Authority NYNJ's press office hasn't been very responsive to requests for information lately so for a change we filed a "freedom of information" (FOI) request during the brouhaha over the big toll increase they proposed a week back. The two state governors claimed they were blindsided by the PANYNJ announcement but said they'd learned the reason was a threatened bond rating downgrade.

A day after the Port Authority NYNJ announced huge toll increases for September, after a panic over a threatened bond downgrade, the Governors of New York and New Jersey conferred Friday and agreed to block the PANYNJ plan. NY Gov Andrew Cuomo and NJ Gov Chris Christie issued a joint statement in which they referred to the PANYNJ toll increases as "indiscriminate and exorbitant."

Facing serious shortfalls in revenue Port Authority New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) staff are proposing major increases in tolls in September. Peakhour roundtrip toll rates for cars on the six New York-New Jersey crossings would rise from $8 now with an E-ZPass account to $12 or by 50% while off-peak tolls, now $6, would go to $10 or 67% up.

Cash tolls for cars would increase the most, going from $8 now to $15 or 88%.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Port Authority) has finally lifted gag orders on its strange procurement of a new toll system, and Electronic Transaction Consultants Corporation (ETC) have formally announced they have the hotly competed $88m contract.

Early June the PANYNJ was saying that a contract was imminent with its preferred new toll system contractor Electronic Transaction Consultants Corp (ETCC). And once that contract had been executed - "in a week or so" one official said -  they'd be free to answer questions about it. All would then be "transparent."