5 Things Revealed in NYS Comptroller’s Port Authority Audit

As widely reported Thursday, an audit of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli revealed out-of-control overtime spending at the agency and a failure to meet its own goals for lowering costs.

The audit report came out just two days before the Port Authority Board of Commissioners votes on proposed toll and fare increases on the George Washington Bridge and other Hudson River crossings.

Below are five specific findings revealed in the audit report released Wednesday:

Number one

Port Authority retirees accounted for 24 percent—or 71—of the 300 top pensioners in the New York State retirement system as of the end of 2009. The annual pensions of those employees were anywhere from about $125,000 to nearly $197,000; the average annual pension was $143,253. The audit noted that many of the retirees were in positions that accrued a lot of overtime, which is “creditable to retirement pensions.”

Number two

Twenty-four PATH and Public Safety Department employees’ 2009 overtime pay was more than 100 percent of their salaries. The audit cites as an example one employee, whose base salary was $107,878, being paid an extra $153,530 for overtime—an average of 34 overtime hours a week for the year.

Number three

Twenty-five Port Authority employees earned more in overtime than their base pay, 281 earned more than $50,000 in overtime, 66 earned more than $75,000 and 18 earned more than $100,000 in overtime pay. In addition, 77 Port Authority employees’ combined overtime and base salary was more than $175,000 in 2009.

Number four

The Port Authority’s 2010 budget—submitted to the governors of New York and New Jersey—said overtime would decrease by 20 percent from 2009. But overtime costs for 2010 only went down by 3 percent—$2.8 million as opposed to the $17.7 million that would have represented a 20 percent reduction.

Number five

The Port Authority established an “informal benchmark for each department that overtime should be no more than 15 percent of base salaries,” according to the audit report. But the average overtime costs for PATH and the Port Authority’s Public Safety Department doubled that limit over a period of several years.

On Thursday, the governors of New Jersey and New York gave their approval to scale back the toll hikes, according to reports.

The new plan would raise tolls $1.50 next month with hikes of 75 cents per year through 2015 to follow.

The governors’ scaled-back toll hike proposal would also raise tolls for E-ZPass customers by a total of $4.50 as opposed to the $6 increase the Port Authority proposed two weeks ago. Commuters who pay cash would face a $2 surcharge in addition to the $4.50 increase—also less than the $3 originally proposed by the Port Authority—making their total $12 this year with smaller increases each year through 2015.

“In the past week, we have worked with Governors Christie and Cuomo to conclude a toll and fare proposal for the Port Authority. We support the proposal laid out today by the Governors and will move this proposal to the Board [Friday],” said Port Authority chairman David Samson and vice chairman Stanley Grayson in a joint statement Thursday.

The Port Authority Board of Commissioners’ special meeting is Friday at 9 a.m. in Manhattan. The public session of the meeting will be broadcast on the Port Authority’s website.