A company that agreed to a $250 million plan to replace most of the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway service area buildings, asked for and got $40 million in help from the Turnpike Authority after it said it lost revenue due to the coronavirus.
That company’s parent company then spent $35 million on stock buybacks the same month and a union is now asking the state to investigate the deal.
The union, Unite Here, claims that Autogrill Group, the parent company of HMS Host, which runs Turnpike and Parkway service areas, spent $35.8 million on stock buybacks before a March 23 vote by the Turnpike Authority board to pay for service area construction costs up to $40 million.