Listen to this article

The Port Authority Board of Commissioners approved a 2020 budget on Thursday consisting of $3.4 billion for operating expenses and $3.6 billion for capital spending.

The Port Authority operates Newark Liberty International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, bridges, and tunnels in New Jersey and New York City. About $2.1 billion will pay for aviation spending, including $1.5 billion to continue redevelopment of the agency’s airports. Other money will pay for upgrades, repairs, new buildings, physical security, and cybersecurity.

Newark Liberty International Airport will receive funding to build a new terminal one, a new parking garage, and a new rental car facility and planning for a new AirTrain Newark and a new Terminal Two.

Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman told NJBIZ the Port Authority is using money to pay police officers to crack down on illegal hustling, unauthorized people who seek to pick up travelers at airports. Illegal hustlers are not regulated taxi drivers.

The budget will take effect on Jan. 1, 2020.

The Port Authority says major expenses in the operating budget include $787 million to provide security at Port Authority facilities, to upgrade cybersecurity initiatives and to enhance emergency operations; $68 million to improve customer experience and to support increased volumes of activity at agency facilities; $20 million for Newark AirTrain operational support and for AirTrain JFK for major repairs and maintenance, to advance the PATH Improvement Plan, and resources to implement the Port Master Plan; $15 million to increase civilian operational support at facilities during construction; more than $330 million to provide support sustainability and resiliency efforts that reduce environmental impact and enhance the resiliency of Port Authority facilities; $310 million for Superstorm Sandy projects to rehabilitate PATH substations and tunnels, for aviation airfield lighting rehabilitation, and for Holland Tunnel’s latent salt damage mitigation program; $10 million in electric vehicle charging infrastructure projects; $11 million to convert Port Authority light duty and airport shuttle buses to all-electric and to implement an electric cargo handling equipment demonstration project at Port Elizabeth.