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The Assembly Thursday voted 44 to 30 with two abstentions to grant its Transportation Committee subpoena power to investigate Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spending practices.

The resolution, which does not require further approval, was prompted by reports and what Democratic lawmakers see as questionable decisions by the Port Authority during recent months.

“This step was made necessary by the Port Authority’s sheer hubris and failure to respond to basic questions about its operations,” Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), the Transportation Ciommittee chairman, said. “More and more the Port Authority is beginning to look like an out-of-control agency that has forgotten it exists to serve the public. It hid information on its painful toll increase, wastes money on overtime, stacks its payroll with political cronies, fails to respond to public records requests and tried to obfuscate it all by declining hearing invitations. It’s time to get straight answers once and for all.”

Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick( R-Union) opposed the legislation, saying the Transportation Committee is not an arm of the Democratic State Committee.

“I believe this issue should be resolved through the bipartisan audit already being conducted by Governors Christie and Cuomo," Bramnick said. "A partisan, politically-motivated investigation led by the state Democratic Party chairman (Wisniewski) sets a bad precedent. This resolution does not create the fair and objective review the public expects.”

The issue of the Port Authority’s handling of finances affects New Jersey taxpayers and commuters. Assemblymen Jason O’Donnell (D-Hudson) and Charles Mainor (D-Hudson) abstained from the vote while Assemblymen Thomas P. Giblin (D-Essex), Brian E. Rumpf (R-Ocean), Declan J. O'Scanlon (R-Monmouth), and Michael Carroll (R-Morris) did not vote.

Wisniewski on Monday announced that New Jersey and New York lawmakers will also hold a special joint public hearing on Staten Island on April 20 to discuss Port Authority’s operations.

Under the approved resolution, the Transportation Committee is permitted to convene as a special panel with the power to issue subpoenas to compel the attendance and testimony of Port Authority officials and make them produce records, papers, correspondence and other documents.

“The deficiencies detailed in the recent audit call into question the need for the exorbitant toll hikes heaped on commuters last fall,” Assemblywoman Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), who is sponsoring legislation (A-1011), along with Assemblyman Ruban Ramos Jr. (D-Hudson) and Wisniewski, to overhaul the way the authority conducts business.

“Toll payers shouldn't be forced to suffer for the Port Authority's lack of oversight, insufficient cost controls and poor capital planning,” Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Union), a sponsor of the subpoena resolution, said. “More importantly, they shouldn’t be lied to and kept in the dark, especially when it impacts their daily finances. If they’re not willing to take control of their finances, somebody must for the sake of the toll payers.”

“The back-pedaling, double-talk and lack of transparency has to change,” Ramos said. “This is a monstrous agency that impacts the lives of countless tri-state area commuters every day and yet they operate in the shadows answering to no one. We must shine some light on the way they operate.”

In August, a New York state comptroller audit revealed that the Port Authority had wasted nearly half of a billion dollars on overtime costs over the last five years. Despite the audit and other reports of alleged mismanagement and abuse, the agency approved near record toll hikes with little public input, citing, among other things, increased costs for the Word Trade Center reconstruction project.

After the Port Authority was sued by AAA of New York and Northern New Jersey, the authority rescinded the claims that a portion of the tolls would be used for the World Trade Center site, calling into question the need for the hike.

Consequently, Wisniewski called a Feb. 2 hearing of the Transportation Committee to investigate the Port Authority’s finances and invited the director, but he declined to attend or send a representative.

Several days later, an audit described the agency as “a challenged and dysfunctional organization” that suffered from lack of oversight, insufficient cost controls and poor capital planning.

The approved legislation will allow the Transportation Committee to be constituted as a special committee of the Assembly with subpoena power to investigate all aspects of the finances of the Port Authority, including the recently proposed 10-year capital plan; the allocation of the revenue from the toll increase plan and where that revenue is being spent; and the salary, overtime and other compensation paid to officers and employees of the authority.

—TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM