The two governors share control over the bistate transportation agency, and everyone will be watching to see whether cooperation or conflict reigns Watch video
File photos of N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (AP Photo/Mike Groll) and N.J. Gov. Chris Christie (Frank H. Conlon/For The Star-Ledger)TRENTON — In his rookie year in office, Gov. Chris Christie has treated the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as if he were governor of both states.
He unilaterally canceled a trans-Hudson rail tunnel project to avoid cost overruns and threatened to withhold support for World Trade Center development if he didn’t get money to raise the Bayonne Bridge.
Then he swatted away a proposal to use Port Authority funds to repair the Tappan Zee Bridge — a month before claiming $1.8 billion of the agency’s money for road projects in New Jersey such as renovating the Pulaski Skyway.
But now he isn’t the region’s only rising political star.
When Christie peers across the Hudson River today, he’s no longer facing off with lame-duck Gov. David Paterson but newly inaugurated Gov. Andrew Cuomo, hot off a landslide election win.
Although the Port Authority was created to foster interstate cooperation, at times it has been a fault line between New York and New Jersey. The two governors share control over the bistate transportation agency, and everyone will be watching closely to see how Christie and Cuomo balance billions of dollars in development money between them.
“They’re two very strong-willed personalities,” said Dan Sullivan, chairman of the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. “It’ll be enormously interesting.”
As two of the country’s most high-profile governors, there will be endless opportunities for cooperation and conflict. In the past, New York and New Jersey have battled over garbage disposal, commuter taxes and the infamous needles that washed up on the Jersey Shore. But the Port Authority is the grand stage where the two states spar or collaborate.
“It is the Port Authority that is symbolic of that relationship and that interdependence,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant who has worked in both states. “It’s the most powerful entity of its kind in the country.”
The Port Authority is responsible for the New York City area’s largest transportation hubs, including Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy and La Guardia airports. Commuters pay tribute to the $7.2 billion agency every time they pass through the George Washington Bridge’s tolls or ride on the PATH train. The recession has not spared the agency, which cut its 10-year capital plan by 17 percent three years ago.
But the Port Authority still has enormous projects on the horizon, including the $11 billion redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, which will include New York City’s tallest skyscraper and a renovated transportation hub.
There are also plans to replace the Goethals Bridge between Elizabeth and Staten Island (potentially $1 billion) and build a new terminal at JFK (also about $1 billion, primarily financed by Delta Airlines).
Although Christie is a Republican and Cuomo is a Democrat, they have built somewhat similar résumés. Both used their reputations as hard-charging prosecutors to catapult them into the governor’s office, where they have pledged to confront public employee unions and fix gaping budget deficits.
Christie declined to detail his conversations with his counterpart.
“Gov. Cuomo and I have spoken together many times during the campaign through to just seven or eight days ago,” he said Thursday. “But what Gov. Cuomo and I talk about is between me and Gov. Cuomo.”
He added, “I think we’re getting real tight.”
Despite their individual ambitions and opposing parties, William Palatucci, the New Jersey Republican national committeeman, said he expects the two men to get along.
“They are two Italian, Northeast guys from big families who connect on a personal level,” said Palatucci, a confidant of Christie’s. “Their styles are very much the same. They are very frank, direct guys.”
Palatucci said Christie and Cuomo have too much else to worry about to fight over the Port Authority.
“Their fights are more in the Legislature and with their budgets and dealing with public employees,” he said. “If we can work together on the Port Authority, it’s one less battle to wage.”
Joseph Seneca, a Rutgers economics professor, expects the two states to play tug of war over economic development, baiting companies with incentives to lure new jobs.
“The competition is going to be extremely razor sharp,” Seneca said.
Sheinkopf said the two governors will recognize that the recession-weary public doesn’t have patience for bickering.
“They will get along — because they have to. There’s no political gain for them not getting along,” he said. “They don’t want to turn around and say to the electorate, we couldn’t get something done.”
Cuomo’s office has been quiet about plans for the Port Authority, and his spokesman did not return requests for comment. The New York governor traditionally appoints the agency’s executive director; that’s currently Christopher Ward, a holdover from the Paterson administration.
But Christie has shown he is keeping a close eye on the agency. His nominee for chariman, former New Jersey attorney general David Samson, helped lead his transition team. And the deputy executive director he appointed, former Republican state Sen. Bill Baroni, is another close ally.
In fact, Baroni was at the news conference where Christie announced his desire to use Port Authority money for New Jersey road projects, part of a plan to patch the state’s Transportation Trust Fund.
Observers say it’s a sign that the agency may be milked for more local projects instead of trans-Hudson transportation.
Some regional transportation officials and Port Authority watchers are worried about just that. They fear that Christie’s plan to use $1.8 billion in Port Authority money for state roads — plus whatever funding Cuomo could demand in exchange — could put the agency on a slippery slope away from its regional mission.
“It would be better if most of those projects didn’t happen, so the Port Authority could modernize the airports, raise the Bayonne Bridge deck, etc.,” said Jameson Doig, a Princeton University professor emeritus who wrote a book on the agency.
The Port Authority’s history is filled with horse-trading. Former New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller secured agency money for the World Trade Center, which opened in 1973. In return, the New Jersey governor at the time, Richard Hughes, got the Port Authority to modernize the rail tunnels under the Hudson River that became the PATH train system.
Some transportation officials expect similar wheeling and dealing over Christie’s plans.
When it comes to balancing the needs of the two states, it’s possible the relationship could look like that of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo’s father and a Democrat, and former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, Christie’s political mentor and a Republican. The two gathered for a cordial “fireside chat” at Rutgers last month.
Kean recalled, “When we got together we talked about what was common sense, what were the needs of New York, what were the needs of New Jersey, how could we get together on those needs, how could we take, for instance, the Port Authority dollars that were available to the states and make sure they were used in ways that were going to benefit both states.”
But the relationship between the two states has broken down in the past, such as when New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman and New York Gov. George Pataki — both Republicans — fought bitterly over the Port Authority.
“These are big dollars, big projects you’re talking about. It can break down very fast.
The name-calling can start, and the tensions can escalate,” she said. “Particularly when you’re in tough economic times, each side is going to want to see more stimulus for their side.”
By Chris Megerian and Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger