Back in 2011, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was trying to justify the schedule of hefty annual toll increases it was seeking, the authority claimed initially that the additional revenue the increases would bring was needed to pay for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site and other important capital projects.
The increases were approved by the governors of New York and New Jersey largely on that basis.
Then, the AAA of New York and AAA of Northern New Jersey filed suit, contending, rightly, that it is illegal for the P.A. to use the money for non-transportation projects. (Federal law requires that toll revenue be used solely for transportation.)
To use toll revenue for non-transportation purposes, the authority quickly changed its story and claimed that the additional toll revenue would be used exclusively for projects related to its Interstate Transportation Network.
Note that the toll increases the P.A. had sought were already in place and hard-pressed drivers have been paying the gradually jacked-up tolls ever since.
The last we heard, that suit was still pending as AAA has fought unsuccessfully to get the court to force the Port Authority to release hundreds of internal documents that could shed light on the decision to raise tolls on bridges and tunnels.
Meanwhile, every driver who uses P.A. bridges and tunnels pays ever-higher tolls, however faulty the agency’s original rationale for increasing the tolls was.
We cite this only as an illustration of the bi-state agency’s habit of doing things its own way, regardless of what anyone outside the agency thinks — other than the two governors who need the P.A. for their own reasons and who tend to rubber-stamp its decisions.
Here’s another example:
The Empire Center for Public Policy Inc., which describes itself as an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in Albany, reported this week that at least 10 Port Authority Police Department members collected $300,000 or more in pay last year.
Using data from its SeeThroughNY database, the center released names and salaries of the 100 highest-paid Port Authority employees.
High salaries galore
One lieutenant collected a whopping $402,812 in pay during 2014. His base pay was $114,471. Another got, $336,484, and a third collected $334,181. Yes, the three were part of a successful 2005 lawsuit that alleged discrimination in the authority promotion process, but it’s not clear if the figures include back pay awarded by the court.
And yes, the figures include overtime — a colossal amount of overtime, we’d say. Even so, those are staggeringly high salaries given to people who are essentially public employees, however dedicated they may be.
Sure, the PAPD lost 37 of its members at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 — more than the NYPD — and residents of the region owe the department a debt of gratitude. But that doesn’t justify these princely salaries that far exceed those paid to personnel in other police departments.
And if departmental casualties on 9/11 were the primary standard by which pay should be allocated, then firefighters with the New York City Fire Department, which lost 343 members that day (and loses more Ground Zero heroes each month), should be getting paychecks akin to those that Major League Baseball players get.
A dozen other Port Authority employees, including non-police personnel, received pay higher than the $289,667 salary of P.A. Executive Director Patrick Foye, according to the Empire Center.
In fact, all 7,400 P.A. employees collected average annual pay of $98,854, with about half earning more than $100,000. Nice work if you can get it.
Its own universe
You get the picture. The multibillion-a-year Port Authority operates in its own universe according to its own rules and, when it comes right down to it, answers to nobody. All the reforms touted by the governors after the 2011 toll hikes have yet to produce the cost-cutting and efficiencies that were promised.
Though it exists solely as a creation of the two state governments, this massive bureaucratic entity seems to behave as if it were a sovereign nation, despite the best intentions of would-be reformers such as Mr. Foye.
Too big to reform? You be the judge.
No, salaries are not the only thing driving increasing costs at the P.A., but they’re clearly a big factor.
Think about that the next time you get your E-ZPass statement.
© 2015 The Advance