Bill Text: NJ AR185 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Authorizes Assembly Judiciary Committee to enter upon investigation or inquiry into financial and operating practices of NJ Transit; grants committee subpoena power.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)
Status: (Passed) 2016-10-20 - Filed with Secretary of State [AR185 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2016-AR185-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JOHN F. MCKEON
District 27 (Essex and Morris)
SYNOPSIS
Authorizes Assembly Judiciary Committee to enter upon investigation or inquiry into financial and operating practices of NJ Transit; grants committee subpoena power.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Assembly Resolution authorizing the Assembly Judiciary Committee to enter upon an investigation or inquiry into the financial and operating practices of the New Jersey Transit Corporation.
Whereas, The New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) is a public corporation, established pursuant to statute in 1979, for the purpose of acquiring, operating, and contracting for transportation service in the public interest; and
Whereas, NJ Transit provides transportation for over 270 million passengers annually, including passenger ridership in excess of 160 million for bus services, 85 million for rail passenger service, and 20 million for light rail service, and collects over $900 million in passenger fares per year; and
Whereas, Many of its customers expect NJ Transit to provide safe and reliable transportation in order to commute to and from work and the economic vitality of the state depends on NJ Transit's ability to meet those expectations; and
Whereas, Recent events have caused the public to doubt the safety and reliability of the transportation services provided by NJ Transit; and
Whereas, On September 29, 2016, an NJ Transit train broke through the barrier at the Hoboken station and crashed into the wall of one of the terminals, resulting in the death of one individual and injuries to over 100 people; and
Whereas, Although the cause of the accident is not yet known, questions immediately arose as to whether the crash was preventable and what NJ Transit could have done to mitigate any death, injury, or damage caused by the crash; and
Whereas, NJ Transit does not have the best safety record, caused, in part, by its failure to fully implement positive train control systems on its rail network; and
Whereas, Although NJ Transit had previously hired a safety consultant to examine how NJ Transit would fare during a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) safety audit and the consultant report found no widespread problems, the report from the FRA audit conducted earlier this year is expected to reveal numerous safety related incidents and violations; and
Whereas, The audit report follows errors in the internal review process at NJ Transit during Hurricane Sandy, in which the agency made technical errors mapping the impact of water level rise from the storm resulting in NJ Transit emergency plans directing rolling stock to be moved into flood prone areas, thereby increasing the severity of damage to the equipment; and
Whereas, Questions have also been raised about the ability of NJ Transit to retain talent and adequately maintain professional staffing levels, which has most notably manifested in the vacancy in the Executive Director position since December 2015, and notably, lack of organizational leadership has been cited as one of the reasons for the safety violations identified in the FRA audit; and
Whereas, In addition, operating deficits revealed to the Legislature during the Fiscal Year 2017 budget hearings raise serious concerns about the financial stability of NJ Transit; and
Whereas, On several occasions during recent years, NJ Transit has been required to identify operating savings in order to avoid year end deficits; and
Whereas, Passengers of NJ Transit bus and rail services have endured fare increases, including one of the largest fare increases in NJ Transit history in 2010 and another nine percent fare increase in 2015, without witnessing a proportionate increase in the quality or frequency of service; and
Whereas, Confounding the matter, NJ Transit has engaged in conduct that shields NJ Transit financial and operating practices from public view; and
Whereas, In 2015, the fare increases were adopted without sufficient input from the public and over the objections of many of NJ Transit's riders, resulting in members of the Legislature introducing legislation to provide reforms to the agency; and
Whereas, Unlike the Department of Transportation, NJ Transit does not elaborate on the manner by which it identifies the projects worthy of presentation before the Legislature for inclusion in the capital program; and
Whereas, Worse yet, NJ Transit has held only one public board meeting since June 2016 despite prior standard practice of holding monthly board meetings that were open to the public; and
Whereas, Threats to the reliability of our system of Hudson River crossings are growing each year, including failure of the rail tunnels, overcrowding at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, hurricanes, flooding, population growth, and aging infrastructure; and
Whereas, The public and the State's economic vitality depend on NJ Transit to fulfill its mission and statutory purpose and the State cannot afford for the agency to be unprepared for the growing challenges faced by the agency and the State's transportation system; and
Whereas, NJ Transit has demonstrated that it is not willing to operate in an open and transparent manner and the public has lost confidence in the agency's ability to resolve on its own the issues that it now faces and that it will face in the near future; and
Whereas,
It is necessary and altogether fitting and proper for the General Assembly to investigate
the financial and operating practices of NJ Transit in order to inform the
members of this House of the multitude of problems faced by the agency and develop
legislative solutions to those problems; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The Assembly Judiciary Committee may enter upon an investigation or inquiry into the financial and operating practices of the New Jersey Transit Corporation.
2. For the purpose of carrying out an investigation or inquiry under this resolution, the Assembly Judiciary Committee shall have all the powers conferred under the laws and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and the United States, including those powers conferred pursuant to chapter 13 of Title 52 of the Revised Statutes, which shall include, but not be limited to, the power to issue subpoenas to compel the attendance and testimony of persons and the production of books, papers, correspondence, and other documents.
3. For the purpose of carrying out an investigation or inquiry under this resolution, the committee shall be entitled to call to its assistance and avail itself of the services of the employees of the State of New Jersey, any political subdivision of the State, and any agency thereof, as may be required and as may be available for that purpose, and to employ any other services as may be deemed necessary, in performance of the powers provided herein, and within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available for that purpose.
4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This resolution authorizes the Assembly Judiciary Committee to enter upon an investigation or inquiry into the financial and operating practices of the New Jersey Transit Corporation. The resolution grants the committee the power to issue subpoenas to compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of documents.
