Assembly Panel to Consider Subpoenaing Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

Panel Seeks Answers to Agency’s Troubled Finances

(TRENTON) – The Assembly transportation panel will meet Wednesday to consider issuing subpoenas to the troubled Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The committee will consider a resolution regarding the issuance of subpoenas to compel the attendance before it of witnesses and the production before it of books, papers, e-mails and other documents related to the finances of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The Assembly voted in March to grant the panel subpoena power over the Port Authority.

The bill was sponsored by Assembly Democrats John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), Linda Stender (D-Union/Middlesex/Somerset) and Ruben Ramos, Jr. (D-Hudson) and was prompted by scathing reports and questionable decisions by the Port Authority during recent months. 

“This step was made necessary by the Port Authority’s hubris and abject failure to respond to basic questions about its operations,” said Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), who chairs the panel and is also Deputy Assembly Speaker. “The Port Authority has blatantly shirked oversight and clearly forgotten it exists to serve the public. It has hidden information on its toll increase, wasted money on overtime, stacked its payroll with political cronies, failed to respond to public records requests and tried to obfuscate by declining hearing invitations. It’s time for the committee to consider how best to get straight answers for the benefit of toll payers.”