If only the Gateway project were in Kentucky | Editorial

Now we know why New York and New Jersey don’t get any love from the Trump administration when it comes to the Gateway tunnel project -- arguably the most pressing infrastructure need in the nation.

It’s because all the love is headed over to the Bluegrass State, Kentucky, home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a top Republican, and his wife, Elaine Chao, who happens to be Transportation Secretary.

And in case there were any doubts about whether the ethically challenged Trump administration was giving states in the Northeast Corridor a fair shake on such vital road, bridge and tunnel projects, those doubts were put squarely to rest this week thanks to a report from Politico that shows clearly where the Transportation Department’s priorities lie.

Deep in the heart of Kentucky, that’s where.

As Politico reported Monday, the Transportation Department overseen by Chao “designated a special liaison to help with grant applications and other priorities from her husband Mitch McConnell’s state of Kentucky, paving the way for grants totaling at least $78 million for favored projects as McConnell prepared to campaign for re-election.”

Yes, it seems that even the mighty McConnell needs to grease some wheels when it comes time for re-election. Even if it means placing his wife in a compromising situation.

Politico noted that, beginning in April 2017, Chao and an aide met annually with a delegation from Owensboro, Kentucky, a river port with long connections to McConnell to discuss two projects of “special importance.” Here’s the kicker: the port city has a population of 59,809.

Let’s compare that number to the more than 200,000 daily passengers who commute between New Jersey and New York City, via an aging Hudson River tunnel system that is more than a century old, and suffered debilitating damage during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Let’s contrast Chao’s reported hands-on treatment for Kentucky ports with her willful ignorance and indifference when it comes to Gateway, an estimated $13.6 billion undertaking that would see a new rail tunnel built under the Hudson.

As every high-ranking elected official in the New York metropolitan region knows, the current North River Tunnel is living on borrowed time. Meantime, the Portal Bridge is a swing span that often won't close properly, forcing Amtrak workers to bang it shut with sledgehammers.

As Rep. Nita Lowey, D-New York, and chair of the House Appropriations Committee, put it earlier this year, “[the Gateway] project is the most urgent infrastructure project in the nation.”

Apparently, not to Chao, not to McConnell, and certainly not to President Donald Trump, who has shown his disdain for anything that might be seen as helping so-called “blue states,” or the mostly Democratic lawmakers who represent them in Washington.

As Rep. Mikie Sherrill stated so plainly in a tweet earlier this week:

“One can’t help but think: would we have already broken ground on Gateway if it were located in Kentucky, not New Jersey and New York?”