The Delaware River Port Authority, which operates four bridges across the Delaware and the PATCO train line, is known far and wide as a patronage dump that collects tolls then disperses the money to politically connected groups as it sees fit. It is scheduled to raise tolls by $1 next summer. But board member and Philadelphia labor leader John Dougherty calls for the DRPA to use unspent economic development funds to offset the loss of the anticipated income from higher tolls. Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner, a member of the DRPA board, has called for a halt to all economic development spending. In the last 12 years, the DRPA has spent about $500 million on economic development, contributing to a debt of $1.4 billion, which consumes about 40 percent of the agency's revenue, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.
And while they're doing that the Walt Whitman bridge has huge rust marks clearly visible to motorists.
CEO John Matheussen, a former N.J. state senator and vice chairman Jeff Nash, a tool of the Boss Norcross machine in Camden County who also is a county freeholder, should be shown the door. They've helped bring the DRPA to where it is.
