Cost of World Trace Center renewal jumps $3.8 billion to $14.8 billion in 3 years
BY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
The initial phase of a consultant’s review of the financial operations of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey describes an agency that is “challenged and dysfunctional," and where poor management has “obscured full awareness of billions of dollars in exposure” to the bi-state agency.
The audit has also found that the World Trade Center renewal project costs, last publicly reforecast at $11 billion in 2008, has since grown $3.8 billion to $14.8 billion at a minimum.
The review also found Port Authority capital planning is plagued by management deficiencies that have resulted in a doubling of debt in 10 years as the agency drifted moved away its core responsibility as a transportation infrastructure organization. Coupled with the consultant’s assessment of the impact of ‘add-on’ compensation for agency personnel – an institutionalized practice that has contributed to a 19 percent increase in gross compensation in just five years
