How Christie's Men Turned the Port Authority into a Political Piggy Bank

[marmar]

Governor Chris Christie’s team at the Port Authority did more during their tenure at the agency than cause traffic headaches for a mayor who didn’t endorse a governor with national ambitions. David Wildstein and Bill Baroni also directed billions of dollars of the bi-state agency’s funds to projects that helped plug New Jersey’s budget holes, win union support and make inroads into Democratic territory, according to multiple sources familiar with the Port Authority.

When Christie took office in 2010, he sent two skilled political operatives to the Port Authority: former State Sen. Bill Baroni and political blogger David Wildstein. They immediately began work to kill the new tunnel being built under the Hudson River and redirected the money to several projects around the state, according to multiple sources familiar with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The bi-state agency, with its steady stream of income from tolls and airport fees, provided more than $3.3 billion to support New Jersey projects favored by Governor Christie, who was cutting budgets in Trenton and refusing to raise the gas tax to fund transportation projects. Several of the projects went to state facilities not under the Port Authority's purview. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.wnyc.org/story/how-christies-men-turned-port-authority-political-piggy-bank/

[starroute]

1. Corrupt as hell

And it sure explains why he killed that much-needed Hudson tunnel.

But the next question is whether he was just doing it to avoid raising taxes and win local support -- or if some of the money went to lining the pockets of his cronies or even being funneled into the dark money campaign machine.

There's still a lot more here to come out.

[Bandit]

2. What I don't understand is why anyone finds this surprising, This is SOP for Republicans

They learn very early on how to milk the system...ALL Republican do this sort of thing.. ALL

[jsr]

3. Very true.

[Gothmog]

4. This story has some legs

Bridgegate is going to shed some light on a large number of Christie abuses

[Laxman]

5. If They Turn Over This Rock.....

they will find a lot of creepy crawly things. The ARC tunnel was a badly needed but ill-conceived project. A dead-end tunnel for NJ only rail traffic was not the right way to go. BUT... that money could have been re-purposed to the currently proposed Gateway Tunnel project in partnership with Amtrak for a project that would truly add capacity to the entire Northeast Corridor.

That money (aside from what was paid back) was sprinkled around the state for pet highway projects, not for transit.

The Port Authority has been used as a slush fund for the politically favored as well as a dumping ground for Christie cronies who have been getting well-paid, but senseless jobs.

Start looking into the Port Authority and there will be some serious ugliness found.

[flamingdem]

6. Why did it take so long for this to come out?

Or I guess the pattern is so obvious it makes sense to tackle it now.