The Impact of Infrastructure on NJ's Economic Development

Rick Cotton, Executive Director, and Kevin O’Toole, Chairman, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey join Steve Adubato to discuss the impact infrastructure has on economic development in a region. They also examine the recent improvements to transportation hubs like the PATH system and Newark Airport, as well as the potential upcoming fare and toll increases.

8/31/19 #111

Excerpt:

"We are pleased to welcome Mr. Rick Cotton, Executive Director of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Kevin O'Toole, the Chairman of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Thank you gentlemen. Well, good to be here. Thank you. People hear "The Port Authority" "Come on! What do they do? How much do they run and control?" Go Kevin. It's the engine that could. So with the capital plan, we're looking at 32 billion dollars, which is gonna grow to maybe 37 billion. You're talking about creating over 200,000 jobs. You're talking about 20 billion dollars in wages, 57 billion dollars added to the economy in other related fields. What do you guys run? Put that in perspective. It's not just the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel? What else? No. It's the seaport. We run the Hudson River crossings, the two tunnels and the George Washington Bridge, and the three bridges that go from New Jersey to Staten Island. We run the major airports, in fact, including Teterboro. So we've got Newark, we've got LaGuardia, we've got JFK. And we run PATH. And all of those are huge economic engines for the region. Right before we got on the air, we were talking about the Bayonne Bridge... I'm sorry Kevin, you want to jump in? Yeah. I mean a quick number Steve. Airport, 138 million passengers. Record numbers. Ports, seven million TEUs. Record numbers. TEUs? TEUs. Explain what TEUs are. They... those are standard size containers. It's a measure of the number of containers that come in during... Rick, I knew that. I just wanted to see if you knew. [laughter] Yeah. Me too. 2nd highest-grossing port right now is ours right now. The 2nd highest in the nation? 2nd. 1st is? 1st is Los Angeles. Historically, the 2nd has been Long Beach, California for the last two decades. Based on our growth, we just passed Long Beach, and we're now the 2nd busiest. The number is 81 million passengers at PATH, 120 million vehicles at bridges and tunnels 76 million passengers at The Port Authority Bus Terminal. This is huge. These are huge movers of people and vehicles. Okay, but let's be honest about what it costs to do this. And by the way, The Port Authority is one of the supporters of what we do at the Caucus Educational Corporation. I want to put that out there. But I want to be clear on this. Not only has there been a recent toll increase, right? To fund some of these projects and others? Which we'll talk about in a second. But let's be honest about what it really..."