Taxpayers won a reprieve last week when the Port Authority postponed a vote on a plan to finance another tower at 3 World Trade Center. It was put off for a simple reason: The votes weren’t there because the board is split.
Our objection has nothing to do with the tower itself. If someone wants to build the tower, we’re all for it. What we object to is the Port Authority’s filling a role that is best left to the private sector.
These days, there’s another reason to oppose this: the integrity of the Port Authority itself. By now, there’s almost no one who doesn’t recognize that this bloated bi-state bureaucracy (complete with its own police force) needs to be cut down to size. And one immediate way is to stop venturing out into areas outside its real mission, which is transportation infrastructure.
Critics rightly complain about mission creep. But mission creep has been abetted by the way the profit-making parts of the Port Authority are used to underwrite expensive boondoggles such as the Ground Zero transit station. All this expansion comes at the expense of its core mission: Anyone really want to argue that those paying the $13 toll at the George Washington Bridge are getting their money’s worth?
Getting out won’t be easy: The Port Authority has created piles of debt along the way. And even if it succeeded in, say, dropping PATH or other money losers, someone will have to figure out who’s on the hook for all those losses.
But that shouldn’t change the approach going forward: Stop using the Port Authority as a cash cow that collects tolls and fees from one project to finance another.