MTA

It's state budget season! Governor Andrew Cuomo's executive budget is chock-a-block with raids of dedicated transit funds, questionable transfers, and toll cuts doled out as election-year favors. It's a mess that doesn't answer how the state will close the $15.2 billion gap in the MTA capital program.

At approximately 5 p.m. Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he had ordered the complete closure of New York City's bus and subway systems in the face of an oncoming snowstorm. If nothing else, it was a stark reminder that the transit system is not a political orphan. The MTA is, in fact, Cuomo's agency.

The MTA Reinvention Commission report, the product of months of work from a panel of experts, was unceremoniously dumped to the press by the governor's office at 5:30 p.m. yesterday, shortly before Thanksgiving. While the document [PDF] includes a number of worthwhile suggestions, it fails to seriously grapple with the biggest challenges facing New York's transit system. The MTA's astronomical construction costs and the substantial systemwide benefits of funding transit with road pricing get only cursory mentions. This is disappointing, but not surprising, since the report is a reflection of the man who created and controlled the commission: Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Yesterday, Governor Andrew Cuomo called the region's transit investment plan "bloated" and rejected calls for new revenue. Today, MTA Chairman and CEO Tom Prendergast, speaking at a forum on best practices in regional transit governance, hammered home the need for elected officials to find new money to fill the half-funded capital plan's $15 billion gap.

The City Council transportation committee today passed bills to lower the city's speed limit and give hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers a transit-related tax benefit. But most of this afternoon's hearing was dedicated to the next MTA capital plan.

Mayor Bill de Blasio was one of the estimated 400,000 people marching in Manhattan Sunday to urge world leaders to avert catastrophic climate change before it's too late. And he backed it up by having his administration commit to reducing New York City's carbon emissions 80 percent from 2005 levels by 2050. Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found at the People's Climate March, and for good reason. The governor's climate plan consists mainly of a single strategy: Brace for impact.

When Governor Cuomo smiled for the cameras to announce labor deals with the Transport Workers Union and Long Island Rail Road unions, he promised they wouldn't push already-planned fare hikes any higher. The unanswered question was: How much will this cost, and how is he going to pay for it? Now we know: The governor's MTA is moving money away from investments in the system's long-term upkeep, widening a $12 billion hole even as a panel of experts studies ways to pay for needed improvements.

In early May, Governor Andrew Cuomo directed the MTA to create a "transportation reinvention" panel as the authority prepared its next five-year capital plan. Members were appointed late last month, and the commission has launched Facebook and Twitter accounts. But details about its agenda and how open it will be to the public are scant. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking: The MTA capital plan has to be finalized by October 1.

Governor Cuomo’s MTA Reinvention Commission met for the first time last week at the agency's midtown headquarters. Cuomo has charged the 22-member commission with developing a plan “to make our subways and our entire transit system ready for the challenges of the next century.” The commission’s recommendations are expected to shape the MTA’s next capital program -- its five-year plan for maintenance and expansion -- as well as the authority’s long-term planning and vision.