The Importance of Investing in New Jersey's Infrastructure Now

Steve Adubato and Kevin O’Toole, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, discuss the importance of funding and investing in infrastructure in New Jersey in order to have quality bridges. They also talk about the Gateway Tunnel and the ways it would impact transportation.

5/5/18 #211

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Welcome to State of Affairs. I'm Steve Adubato. Coming to you from the Agnes Varis NJTV Studio in beautiful Newark, New Jersey. We are honored to have, once again, Kevin O'Toole, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a former New Jersey State Senator, served in the legislature for how many years? 22. 22. Let's do this. We'll do some Port Authority stuff, talk about some political discourse, you are a contributing columnist for Insider NJ, check it out folks, great political stuff. You have written extensively on the political discourse, how nasty, how personal, and how negative it is, and it's not productive to getting things done, you were a part of the darn thing Senator, my good friend Kevin, for 22 years. Did it change during that time? Is it just that now? And what's it about? Well it's... I'm in a different role now, and maybe I'm a better coach than a player. [laughter] No I mean part of what I was there for the 22 years... part of it's theater, part of it's... you have this firm belief, part of it's just a real honest disagreement. But when does it get nasty? And did I elevate my voice on occasion? I've been known to do that, so here's what... if you ask me, if you want to go back in time when Florio did the tax increase... Jim Florio, former Governor...? 1993. ...1993? And the Hands Across New Jersey got very angry. Yup. They were burning tissues and whatnot, at some point Chuck Haytaian becomes the Speaker, I think... Speaker of the House. ...then you start seeing a divide then because the vitriol becomes really inflamed, and you saw a real partisan divide, and then nationally you saw when Newt took over as the Speaker. Newt Gingrich. '94 '95 you saw a national divide, when Governor McGreevey came in in 2002 January, he kind of fueled that fire. Now Jim McGreevey is doing God's work now, we love what he's doing with the... The New Jersey Reentry Corporation... recidivism, second chances for ex offenders. Doing great stuff, but he wouldn't look at a Republican if they were on fire, back in 2002, he just had his Democrats, he had his majority, and he ramrodded stuff through... But what about today? ...the Legislature. I think... well listen, here's... it's a different dynamic now, so when you saw what the Democrats did, they were jacked up against Governor Christie and everything was a "no no no" you know, I think they're gonna give Governor Murphy a little more time and breathing room..."