Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) and top transportation advocates yesterday criticized a recently discovered secret deal between Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to divvy up authority over Port Authority projects in their respective states as just the latest example of a pattern of political interference that has undermined the bistate agency.

“This agreement between the two governors creates a dangerous situation that excuses one governor from exercising any check over the excesses of the other governor,” said Martin E. Robins, director emeritus of Rutgers University’s Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Policy Center. “If governors are to have authority over projects in their own states, you wouldn’t need a bi-state authority. I understand each state has its own priorities, but the Port Authority was created to meet the transportation needs of the region, not of individual states.

Robins and other transportation advocates said disclosure of the alleged Christie-Cuomo deal shows that it is not enough for the Legislature to approve Weinberg’s bill making the Port Authority subject to public records laws.

Comprehensive reform is needed, they said, to enable the agency’s commissioners and staff to plan for the region’s transportation needs without improper political interference by the two states’ governors – an issue addressed in legislation introduced by Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) last week.

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