On Thursday, the Senate’s Legislative Oversight Committee met to discuss an overhaul to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. State Senators Loretta Weinberg (D-37) and Bob Gordon (D-38) pushed for a new bill, S-3066, that included terms for more legislative oversight. State Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-13), however, believes that the bill currently on New York Governor Cuomo’s desk is “pretty good.”
In North Jersey’s LD-38, the implications of Bridgegate were staggering due to the high commuter population and the district’s proximity to the George Washington Bridge into New York City. Now, both the sitting democratic assembly members and their republican challengers in the district say that more transparency is necessary.
According to Assemblyman Tim Eustace, both he and Assemblyman Joe Lagana agree with Gordon and Weinberg.
“There is no reason we shouldn’t have as much oversight as necessary,” Eustace told PolitickerNJ. “We need to make sure nothing like this happens again. Joe Lagana and I are 100 percent behind Senators Gordon and Weinberg.”
According to a statement made by Republican challengers Anthony Cappola and Mark DiPisa, “Both sides of the aisle have produced strong ideas geared towards increasing transparency and efficiency and we all have an obligation to come together and pass sweeping reforms that are so desperately needed.”
“We need more transparency, more say for commuters and more accountability for board members at every independent authority and agency,” their statement said. “By implementing measures such as fixed terms for the Executive and Deputy Directors, we can take a step towards returning the say to the ratepayers and commuters. But, we should not stop there, we need transparency and good government reforms on a whole host of independent authorities like the Passaic Valley Sewage Commission.”
This statement is a departure from the view of Republican Kyrillos.
