Opinion

George Washington Bridge lane closures remain a mystery

For a great example of government bureaucrats run amok, it’s hard to beat the evolving Mystery of the George Washington Bridge Lane Closures.

On the first day of school in September and for the next three days, Port Authority officials closed two access lanes to the bridge on the Jersey side in Fort Lee — with nary a heads-up to the local mayor, police or even the head of the agency, Pat Foye. Predictably, hours-long gridlock ensued. Fort Lee became a parking lot. The $64,000 question: Why were the lanes closed?

PA Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, who was appointed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, testified that it was part of a traffic study. The man who gave the order, longtime Christie friend David Wildstein, had said the same thing.

But last Monday, PA officials, including Foye — who was picked by Gov. Cuomo — denied there was any such study. And Foye had the lanes re-opened as soon as he learned they’d been shut.

Meanwhile, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolish, a Democrat, claimed the closures were payback for his refusal to back Christie, a Republican, for re-election. Christie’s folks call that crazy; the governor mocked the charge, joking that he had “worked the cones” himself; and Sokolich later backtracked. But Wildstein and Baroni have now quit, and no one has offered a better explanation. And while it’s good the two men are gone, the real problem is the Port Authority itself.

Fact is, the Port Authority is a massive shadow government that operates with scant accountability and transparency. Once a narrowly focused bi-state, port-centered agency meant to run Hudson River crossings and build an underground freight tunnel, the agency today scarfs up nearly $5 billion a year (almost twice the economy of Belize) from motorists and other sources.

It employs some 7,000 people and spends billions on infrastructure. Its assets — airports, trains, tunnels, bridges, real estate, even a waste-burning power plant — are worth tens, maybe hundreds, of billions.

The agency runs train lines, bus terminals, the airports, you name it. It has an economic research team and even its own 1,700-man police force.

Yet there’s precious little oversight. Its capital programs are renowned for delays, cost overruns and waste (the rebuilding of Ground Zero, a PA site, remains unfinished more than 12 years after 9/11). And its dysfunctional governance is all but guaranteed by a structure that gives it two bosses — the governor of New York and the governor of New Jersey — creating two chains of command.

Clearly, the public needs answers about why those lanes were closed, and lawmakers in Trenton have rightly sent out new subpoenas.

But the GWB caper offers a brand new argument for reform. Mission creep has seen the PA grow in arrogance and inefficiency as well as size. Fixing it begins with paring it back to the essentials.