As if Christie and Cuomo Could not Get any Slimier………

They both just vetoed reform of the Port Authority which had been passed unanimously by both legislatures.

It appears that they want to retain their patronage prerogatives:

In a joint press release on Saturday night, Governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie unveiled their long-awaited plan for reforming the Port Authority, while at the same time vetoing a Port-reform bill passed unanimously by both the New York and New Jersey state legislatures.

In separate letters sent to the legislatures in their respective states, Cuomo and Christie said that the program recommended by their "Special Panel on the Future of the Port Authority" was superior to the one they passed.

"The governance structure and other accountability measures recommended by the Special Panel will do a better job of improving accountability," wrote Cuomo.

The governors also agreed to sign a separate bill that would make the bistate authority subject to the states' freedom of information laws.

………

The bills the governors vetoed would have subjected the Port to standards already imposed on other New York State authorities earlier this century.

More precisely, it would have required the Port Authority’s commissioners to certify in writing that their loyalty is to the authority (versus the governors who appointed them). It would have mandated that the authority write up policies for disposal and acquisition of authority property, establish a whistleblower program, require staff to report suspicions of fraud and corruption to the agency’s inspector general, require all commissioners to file annual financial disclosure statements, and more.

This stuff is governance 101, but they want to put their cronies in unaccountable positions of authority so that they can maintain patronage empires.