Posted on 08/17/2010 7:44:51 PM PDT by grace522
It’s Business As Usual at the DRPA. And despite all the “reform” rhetoric flying around, don’t expect real changes anytime soon.
The reason is simple.
The people charged with implementing the reforms are the very same ones who have been, and still are, completely immersed in the conflicts, nepotism and cronyism that need reforming.
That’s like criminals running the prison, inmates taking charge of the asylum.
Given their legacy of abject failure, from accumulating massive debt to spewing outright lies, the DRPA’s Big Four executive braintrust simply has no credibility. (It was The Big Five, but Jon Corzine was given the boot last year.)
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has been virtually silent during the recent brouhaha, and, as the person in charge of the DRPA since 2002, that tells you all you need to know.
Rendell feigning indignation that corruption occurred on his watch as DRPA chairman is like throwing ballast off a sinking ship. It just doesn’t cut it.
His awful reform spin aside, Rendell is gone in months. Two down.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.phillymag.com ...
what is a DRPA?
ping
I had to look it up. Delaware River Port Authority.
The Delaware River Port Authority board approved $76.3 million in economic-development spending last year, more than in any year since 2001.---That followed the DRPA's pledge in July 2008, during public hearings for bridge toll increases, to end its decadelong spending on projects on both sides of the Delaware River.
In December alone, the final month in office for New Jersey's Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine, the Democrat-dominated DRPA board authorized $52.1 million in economic-development spending. The money, all that was left from a massive borrowing for economic development in 1999, was earmarked for projects ranging from the loan fund of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. ($12.9 million) to the Food Bank of New Jersey ($2 million) to a "special project fund" ($2 million).
That final flurry of spending, apparently timed to beat any possible veto by incoming Republican Gov. Christie, brought the DRPA's 12-year total approved for economic development to about $485 million, according to a new accounting provided by the bistate agency.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20100817_DRPA_spending_spree_before_Christie_took_office.html
Chump change compared to what the US 111th Congress will pull in lameduck.
A little background that hardly touches the corruption in the port authority
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-philadelphia/drpa-up-to-its-old-tricks
Another fleecing of the taxpayer by Democrats>>>>>
WHAT?
John J. Matheussen, was a NJ Republican Senator who ran as a pro-life candidate in the NJ Republican primary for US Senate. He was rewarded by Gov. Jim McSleazy because Matheussen stabbed Bret Schundler and in the back by NOT supporting him...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Matheussen
NJ is full of authorities and commissions with fiat power to hire and fire and issue bonds without legislative or ballot authority.. That’s the way the law is written and they are allowed to do it.. Hopefully, Chrisite will reign them in, consolidate them and take away their powers..
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