Port Authority of New York, New Jersey to Cut Jobs

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, operator of bridges and tunnels linking the states and manager of major area airports, told employees today it is eliminating about 100 jobs, an agency spokesman said.

Those losing their positions will be notified this week, Executive Director Anthony Shorris said in a memo dated today obtained by Bloomberg News. Eliminated jobs are ``managerial and administrative positions,'' spokesman Stephen Sigmund said in an e-mailed statement. The bi-state agency has about 7,000 employees, according to an April bond document.

``We all have seen our businesses change a great deal over the years, but we as an agency have not always changed with them,'' Shorris wrote to workers. ``For this reason, in February I asked the agency's leadership to look at our structure and determine whether it is ideally suited to the way we need to operate today, and I informed them that we would need to make some hard choices about restructuring in order to build the kind of agency we all want over the long term.''

Employees who have ``significant tenure'' at the Port Authority will be given the opportunity to fill positions elsewhere in the agency, Shorris said. If they are unsuccessful, the agency has developed a ``comprehensive package of financial benefits and career and retirement counseling to help them transition as smoothly as possible into the next phase of their lives,'' according to the memo.

Authority spokesman Steve Coleman confirmed that the memo was sent to employees today. These are the first involuntary job cuts since the early-to-mid 1990s, he said in an e-mail. No other cuts are contemplated at this time, he said.

`Appropriately Structured'

``The Port Authority is eliminating approximately 100 managerial and administrative positions to help ensure we are appropriately structured to meet the unprecedented level of investment in building and security projects we are making in the coming year,'' Sigmund, the agency's chief of public and government affairs, said in an e-mailed statement.

Besides the bridges and airports, the Port Authority also operates shipping ports in Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Brooklyn and Staten Island in New York City.

Insured bonds sold by the Port Authority two years ago and due September 2035 yielded 4.75 percent as of 3:42 p.m. New York time, from 4.76 percent on Sept. 19. The bonds traded at 96.17 cents on the dollar. Price and yield move inversely.

About $224 million of existing and pending cost savings were announced by budget director Michael Massiah last week at an authority trustees meeting. Those included a 12 percent ``net reduction in non-police permanent and support staff positions since 2004,'' he said.

Lower Operating Budget

Regarding the $182 million of cuts already in place, he said that amounted to a ``nearly 5 percent lower operating budget'' for 2007.

In addition to the job reductions, he said the agency has already implemented a number of savings initiatives, including consolidating management of midtown Manhattan's Port Authority Bus Terminal and the Lincoln Tunnel. Savings will result in ``additional financial capacity'' for programs including rebuilding the World Trade Center; expanding Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, New York; digging a new commuter rail tunnel across the Hudson River, and expanding electronic tolling at bridges and tunnels.

Source: Bloomberg