The unholy alliance of NY and NJ Governors struck again last night, as Governors Christie and Cuomo jointly vetoed Port Authority reform bills that had been passed unanimously by both house of the New York and New Jersey legislatures.
How often is significant legislation passed unanimously by both houses of both legislatures? It would not be a stretch to guess almost never.
For 15 months we've had endless hearings, disclosures, reports, leaks, accounts, reports, press conferences, articles and discussions about the Port Authority of NY and NJ. Despite all sorts of denials, Fifth Amendment Pleading and self-exonerating reports, there was one thing that everyone seemed to agreed upon:
Something was rotten in the (two) states of the Port Authority and reform was needed.
Even the most partisan New Jersey Republicans on the NJ Legislative Committee investigating Bridgegate et al., while criticizing the subpoenas of the majority, argued that the main purpose of the Committee was an inquiry into reform of the Port Authority. So in this age of either gridlock or reactionary legislation (in red states), the two blue state legislatures accomplished the feat of passing Port Authority Reform, which, according to the Times:
would have remade the authority’s daily operations, providing a raft of new financial, ethical and administrative rules, including opening all of its meetings to the public and asking its 12 commissioners to acknowledge that they have a “fiduciary duty” to the Port Authority.
This was too much for the
Two Guvnors, who held a joint press conference to perpetrate what Dick Dadey, executive director of watchdog group Citizens Union, called “the Saturday night massacre of reform.”
The Governors had their own reform proposal, but according to legislators, their proposal would require starting the process from scratch, delaying reform for another year. Their plan was written by a panel of by a panel six people - three close to Governor Christie and three close to Governor Cuomo, according to Blue Jersey.
And the reviews of "Two Guvnors" are in"
"Appalling and disappointing,” Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, a Democrat of Bergen County, N.J.
“I’m at a loss. Senator Robert M. Gordon, also a Bergen County Democrat
But the last word came from Richard L. Brodsky, a former Democratic assemblyman from Westchester County who has long been a critic of the Port Authority’s governance:
“Real reform gets buried on Christmas weekend. Scandal gets talked about forever.”