jersey signed off on by port authority brass, too, that includes christie's then new appointee at the port, deputy executive director bill baroni. it recommended christie kill the project and find a sensible and affordable alternative. supporters including the obama administration pleaded with him to reconsider. it was his job to make the hard choices. that's what his argument was. here is the press release when he canceled it. protects new jersey taxpayer dollars. but that wasn't the whole story. they demanded those back that had already been spent. new jersey ended up paying back $95 million. this was supposedly all in the name of saving money.