The state Senate broke a record yesterday, failing for the 50th time to override Gov. Chris Christie’s veto. At issue: Port Authority reform. After the party line vote, frustration boiled over, even from one of the governor’s closest friends and political allies. State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos spoke with NJTV News anchor Mary Alice Williams about the future of the Port Authority.
When asked if he was voting along party lines when he didn’t support the veto override in yesterday’s Senate session after originally supporting the reform bill from Sen. Bob Gordon, Kyrillos said, “I praised Sen. Gordon. I didn’t praise the bill. We do need a tough reform bill to reign in the Port Authority, there’s no question about that. I thought hard about sending a political signal by supporting the override yesterday but at the end of the day I realized that this state Senate here in New Jersey will have to face a new bill, just as the New York state Senate will, and the New York General Assembly and our House as well.”
Christie vetoed the original Port Authority reform legislation in December, which was also vetoed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“He will not now sign the same exact bill so in essence yesterday we had a political exercise,” Kyrillos said. “I understand it because we’re all frustrated about the Port Authority. It’s a big, huge bi-state agency that needs to be reigned in but the way to go about it is not to do a political exercise, but to get a good, strong consensus bill that can pass on both sides of the river in four different houses and signed by two governors and get the job done. I wish that all the parties that are invested in this can get together and get the job done.”
Sen. Tom Kean introduced a competing reform bill last week. When asked if that legislation would have enough compromise for both governors to sign it Kyrillos said, “I think Sen. Kean is very invested in this. He’s worked very hard just as Sen. Gordon has. They’re different efforts. There’s some overlap and Tom’s bill embodies some of the recommendations of both Govs. Christie and Cuomo. There’s good in both efforts so there’s really no reason because these are both good and reasonable people.”
As far as specific language that needs to be written into the reform legislation in order to get it past everybody, Kyrillos said, “There are some specific things from some specific transparency provisions and governance provisions that have to be part of it.” He continued, “I think Sen. Gordon’s bill probably had some components that would make things inflexible, difficult, awkward to conduct business in an efficient way at the Port Authority, and some of them may have been inadvertent. We’ve learned a lot over the last few months so I think there’s components of both and we can build on it. I’m committed to build on it. I said let’s build on the progress we’ve made so far, it’s been too long.”
At yesterday’s Senate session, Kyrillos called the George Washington Bridge lane closures outrageous and an embarrassment to everyone, including the governor.
“We’ve had a good and historic friendship. We’ve worked together but we have different jobs to do. Gov. Christie knows that. He’s the governor of this big state. I’ve been a state senator for a long time even before Chris was elected and so, you know, I call them as I see them,” he said.
He says his remarks were no different than Christie’s own remarks the day after Bridgegate broke.
“There’s no news in what I said. … In his initial big press conference, he called it an embarrassment and I said as much yesterday in my talk that he acknowledged it. We all realize that. It’s inexplicable that you can have this big public asset and public employees of this state government and the Port Authority can manipulate things. It’s wrong and it means that there’s not the right kind of leadership over there.”
Kyrillos also said that the executive branch, meaning the governor, needs to take the lead on reform.
“Both branches need to lead, but I would assume that the executive branch would really want to get out front and aggressively lead and I think they are. I wish, and what I said on the floor yesterday, was that people in the executive branch, people at the Port Authority would have worked with Sen. Gordon on this bill,” he said. “I know he asked for help and I know he would have welcomed their input and then maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation. I felt that, I said it and I still feel that way and so we all want reform and we’re going to get it. It’s just a matter of the upcoming week and months.”
In January, Kyrillos attended a dinner held by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — a potential Christie presidential rival. When asked if he would support Gov. Christie if he decides to run for president, Kyrillos said he “doesn’t want to go there.”
“It has nothing to do with what we do at the Port Authority, my work at the state Senate. The governor is a strong governor with a lot more months to come in his term and a lot more work. I’m just a country state Senator trying to do my job here in Monmouth County and the people at large all around the state. I’m going to leave the presidential politics to the people that are running for president, and the last I checked, neither one of them are running for president. I think they’re both looking at it and we’ll see how things unfold.”