Thursday, September 27, 2007
Port Authority Gets It Backwards—Again
After eliminating 29 weekday bus routes (15 percent of all runs) back in June, the authority thought it would see a 4 percent ridership reduction. Turns out the reduction was only 2.2 percent in August compared to a year earlier. PAT management was pleasantly surprised and encouraged that the fall off was less than anticipated.
This is a typical response of government agencies. Focus on the apparently positive aspects of the numbers. But in fact the new numbers point to the long term pattern of inefficiency and hidebound resistance to change at the Port Authority. That resistance has caused the waste of tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money as the authority willfully ignored the clear indications of its inefficiencies and continued to operate routes that should have been closed down much sooner.
What’s worse, the Port Authority is still a long way from reaching the kind of cost effectiveness it needs to achieve. And as long as the legislature and the Governor keep coming up with more money to underwrite the money wasting organization rather than forcing the kinds of reforms that would lead to substantial improvements, the authority and its unions will go along their merry money wasting way.
This is a typical response of government agencies. Focus on the apparently positive aspects of the numbers. But in fact the new numbers point to the long term pattern of inefficiency and hidebound resistance to change at the Port Authority. That resistance has caused the waste of tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money as the authority willfully ignored the clear indications of its inefficiencies and continued to operate routes that should have been closed down much sooner.
What’s worse, the Port Authority is still a long way from reaching the kind of cost effectiveness it needs to achieve. And as long as the legislature and the Governor keep coming up with more money to underwrite the money wasting organization rather than forcing the kinds of reforms that would lead to substantial improvements, the authority and its unions will go along their merry money wasting way.
