New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is neither endorsing nor dismissing New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's idea of splitting up the troubled Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

"There are significant operational issues at the Port," Cuomo said Saturday during a conference call with reporters about the state's budget deal. "They are structural and they are entrenched...the Port is not performing well."

Cuomo said he'd made his own dissatisfaction with the Port Authority clear back in January, when he announced in his State of the State address he wanted control of construction at New York City airports.

"The Port, in some ways, was an exciting vision of possibility and regional cooperation, et cetera, when it was first formed," said Cuomo, talking about the construction of the George Washington Bridge. "Bridges, tunnels, are bi-state projects."

But that was then. Now, said Cuomo, "the Port is about running individual activities in two different states, as opposed to joint and mutual activities."

The Port has come under fire in recent months, most infamously for being the instrument of a plot to close lanes on the George Washington Bridge. Several of Governor Christie's appointees to the Port have resigned, most recently its chairman, David Samson.

But transportation experts have told TN breaking up the Port would hurt the region, and its problems are fixable.

Cuomo admitted that the Port's complex structure would make breaking it up "much easier said than done."