Groups Call on the Port Authority to Take Additional Steps Towards Budget Transparency
This week, members of the New York City Transparency Working Group sent a letter to The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey thanking them for publishing their budget online in a machine-readable format. Our letter also asked that they take additional steps concerning budget transparency. Senior officials responded to our letter immediately and said that they would consider our request and respond promptly.
BetaNYC • Citizens Union • Common Cause NY • New York Public Interest Research Group
Reinvent Albany • Tri-State Transportation Campaign
Patrick J. Foye
Executive Director
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
225 Park Avenue South, 15th Floor
New York, NY 10033
January 25, 2016
Re: Thank you for publishing machine-readable budget
Dear Mr. Foye,
We write to thank you and your staff for publishing the 2016 Budget Book online, where it can be downloaded in a machine-readable format, allowing for easier analysis by the public and elected officials.
We welcome the steps you have taken to increase budget transparency, and we appreciate your responsiveness on this issue. Efforts like this show that the Port Authority can be a leader without extraordinary expense or difficulty.
Accordingly, we hope you will take some additional, easy-to-implement steps that will further improve the Port Authority’s budget transparency. We request that you:
● Increase the time the public has to weigh in on the budget;
● Revise and update the operating budget on a regular basis;
● Clearly display the funding sources for individual projects in the capital plan; and
● Publish a five-year financial plan for each area of major activity or business line.
Thank you for your help.
John Kaehny, Executive Director
Reinvent Albany
Veronica Vanterpool, Executive Director
Tri-State Transportation Campaign
Susan Lerner, Executive Director
Common Cause NY
Gene Russianoff, Senior Attorney
New York Public Interest Research Group
Rachael Fauss, Director of Public Policy
Citizens Union
Noel Hidalgo, Executive Director
BetaNYC
CC: John Degnan, Chairman
Janet Cox, Director, Management and Budget Office