NJ, NY Lawmakers to Address Port Tolls

Peter T. Leach, Senior Editor | Mar 14, 2012 11:57AM EDT

State legislators from both sides of the Hudson River will hold a joint hearing in April to examine what they are calling the “lack of accountability” of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The hearing will be co-chaired by New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski, chairman of the Assembly Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities Committee, and by Sen. Charles J. Fuschillo, chairman of New York’s Senate Transportation Committee.

Wisniewski and Fuschillo decided to call the hearing in response to last fall’s controversial toll hike, along with internal and external audits critical of agency spending and other practices.

The hearing, which will be held on April 20 at the Center for the Arts at the College of Staten Island, was scheduled following the release of an auditor’s report commissioned by the port authority of the agency’s management and employee benefits and pay scale, before signing off on bridge and tunnel toll and PATH fare increases that took effect in September.

The toll hike has already cut into the volume of containers handled by the New York Container Terminal on Staten Island, because shippers have balked at the additional surcharges assessed by port truckers to compensate for the tolls they have to pay for draying containers across the Goethals Bridge between New Jersey and Staten Island.

For more on the Port of New York and New Jersey tolls: For Whom the Tolls Hurt