Thursday Headlines: Transit Budget Woes Edition
Aw shit, here we go again.
The MTA expects to reach a deficit of $900 million by 2030, despite recent projections showing more manageable outyear gaps, harkening back to recent financial cycles where funding for the transit agency would remain up in the air for months.
Rising fuel and healthcare costs are to blame, along with fare revenue that hasn’t quite reached pre-pandemic levels. But MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber did provide reassurances yesterday during a board meeting that the agency wasn’t headed toward a full-blown crisis.
“The pandemic may have been a one-time fiscal tsunami, but what we’re seeing now is the reemergence of a disalignment between some of these uncontrollable costs,” he said. The generational health emergency led to such a drop in revenue that the state needed to bail the MTA out in 2023.
Never fear. Lieber classed the coming deficits as a “slow-moving event.”
Elsewhere in the Empire State:
- Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Nassau County) is looking at the future of the Democratic Party. (NY1)
- Tort reform groups are hailing Gov. Hochul as a “trailblazer” for her auto insurance scam. (The New York Post)
- The MTA settled a suit to make subway elevators more reliable. (Gothamist)
- Former Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy reflected on his political career and how upstate New York has changed. (City & State)
- Capitol region flooding prompted Amtrak to suspend service. (WAMC)
- A dodgy section of Route 9 is being eyed for a new car wash, but locals say it will only make things more dangerous. (The Times Union)
- Flock Safety has been replaced as the license plate reader contractor in Syracuse, but some officials still see privacy concerns. (Central Current)
- A longtime Onondaga County district attorney was just kidding about not seeking re-election. (Syracuse.com)
- A Syracuse Common Council member waited 25 years to see his dream of removing I-81’s viaduct realized. (Central Current)
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