MTA bailout plan gets pushback from NYC rep despite warning of service cuts
MTA chair Janno Lieber, at a November MTA meeting. He said Thursday the state bailout is necessary to avoid deep cuts. Credit: Corey Sipkin
A proposed $1.3 billion bailout of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Thursday received pushback from MTA Board members, especially those from New York City, despite warnings that the transit agency could turn to deep cuts in service to fill budget gaps if it doesn't pass.
The plan from Gov. Kathy Hochul looks to fill a recurring $2 billion budget shortfall caused by ridership losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for an increase in payroll taxes paid by large employers in the MTA region, a 5.5% fare increase, and $400 million in cost-cutting.
New York City would also kick in an extra $500 million a year under the proposal. At the agency’s monthly board meeting, board member Sherif Soliman, who was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams, questioned the “fairness,” given that the city already contributes $2.4 billion a year to the transit agency.
Soliman suggested that overburdening the city could come back to bite the MTA.
“If you diminish the capacity of the City of New York to address services above ground, it will have an impact below ground,” Soliman said. “And the universal goal that we all share, which is to lure customers back to this system … will be impaired.”
MTA chairman Janno Lieber said the goal of the proposal “is not just sticking it to the City,” but rather “realigning some aspects of the City-State cost sharing relationship” to make it consistent with other parts of the state. He noted that the proposal looks to have the city pick up the cost of paratransit services for people with disabilities, as Nassau and Suffolk counties already do for their residents.
With the financial plan calling on some employers to pay more in payroll taxes, MTA Board member Samuel Chu pointed out that some employers rely more on the MTA to transport their workers than others. Still, Chu said the board needed to send a unified signal to Albany “that we are all in this together.”
“There’s always going to be an instinct to keep score, but we’re going to succeed in this together, or we’re going to fail in it together,” Chu said.
Lieber called Hochul’s proposed funding package “a balanced approach, while also supporting the top priorities that this board has set out,” including maintaining robust transit service.
The MTA is counting on the financial plan being included in a final state budget adopted in April. Although Lieber said he believes discussions among state lawmakers are moving “in a positive direction,” he said MTA has to “prepare for any and all outcomes.” Because of this, Lieber said, he’s directed staff to update a plan proposed in 2020 — before the MTA had received any federal COVID relief funding — to drastically reduce service.
That plan would have cut LIRR service in half, reducing train frequencies to 60 minutes on high-ridership branches, 120 minutes on lower-ridership branches, and, potentially, eliminating some branches completely. Lieber called such a scenario “a downside case that, I hope, will not come to pass.”
Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.
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