Legislature’s Hits And Misses, A Study In Political Activity

Set up was a referendum on a $66,800,000 college construction board issue and enacted was a broad new college scholarship program.

A State Division of Rail Transportation and a New York-New Jersey Transportation Agency were formed to grapple with commuter problems.

Going to the voters will be the decision on boardwalk games and Sunday sales.

Those were the accomplishments.

Left Undone

[...] The Legislature handled a pile of bills on the railroad commuter problem. Both houses passed a bill to set up a 10-member New York-New Jersey Rapid Transit District, but this went into the wastebasket when New York Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller said he didn’t like it.

Instead, both states now have approved setting up a bi-state transportation agency with only a single member from each state.

A bill, now law, was passed creating a State Division of Rail Transportation in the highway department to work on the commuter problem from an interstate angle.

Bills attempting to force the Port of New York Authority to help pay for transit improvements failed. The Senate passed a bill which would have required the Port Authority to build a link between the Jersey Central Railroad and the Hudson & Manhattan tubes, but it was defeated in the Assembly. Other bills designed to make the Port Authority solely responsible for metropolitan rapid transit never got out of committee. [...]