ALBANY, N.Y. — New York state legislative leaders have rejected a $65 billion capital plan for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, citing a major funding shortfall.
The website Gothamist reports that State Senate Majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie notified MTA CEO Jannon Lieber of the rejection in a Christmas Eve letter. The MTA has 10 days to respond, after which the legislative officials have 10 days to withdraw their rejection. Otherwise, state law requires the MTA to submit a new plan.
The MTA approved the five-year capital plan in September, but said then that legislators would have to find at least $33 billion in funding. The letter from Stewart-Cousins and Heastie said that shortfall “is a specific concern that needs to be addressed before we can approve the program.” Funding will be part of the negotiations for the state budget, due in March, they said.
The 2025-29 plan includes $10.9 billion for new rolling stock, $9 billion for repairs to track and tunnels, $7.8 billion for station improvements, and $5.4 billion for modernizing at least 75 miles of subway signaling with communication-based train control, and $4 billion to modernize subway and commuter rail power systems.
“This Capital Program was grounded in our 20 Year Needs Assessment, and we haven’t heard any concerns or objections from the legislature since it was approved by the MTA Board in September,” an MTA spokesman wrote in a statement to Gothamist. “It will unlock dozens of transformative projects — many of which are funded and ready to go on Jan. 1st. We remain optimistic that the legislature will join the governor in supporting safer, more reliable, and expanded transit.”
Actually, the fare evasion issue is less problematic than the political posturing of the current comedians, as the guv. saw the light and pushed for the cong. pricing plan. The morning NY papers were scathingly critical of the latest circus.
And here’s one who has countless MTA miles w/o ever seeing any violence, and who has driven for 60+ years and witnessed much hiway carnage.
Well, maybe equally problematic. If I’m driving my car and having those fees extracted from me, I’m really pissed off as the years go by, and the stories never change about the hundreds of millions given away for free rides. And yes, I rode the trains for almost fifty years, and I did witness violence and experience crime personally.
Yes, they are broke, per se. However, they are broke because of mismanagement and misdirection of state and local revenues, e.g., taxes. Think of the billions wasted in New York alone doting over illegal aliens.
And the list goes on….
We’ll see how long “congestion pricing” lasts. Probably not as long as fare evasion or violence on the subway.
In plain English, MTA is broke.
As will be every transit district in America when federal funds for local transportation are reduced or eliminated.
Empire State projected GDP for 2024 is $2.284 trillion. Why do they need ANYTHING from the Federal trough?