The Only Real MTA Budget Fix: Accountability to NYC

While the Speaker is right, that transit is crucial to the lives of New Yorkers and any cuts would be devastating, the proposed solution, to

reallocate $140 million of capital funds to temporarily close an unexpected gap in [the MTA] operating budget

does nothing but further delay maintenance and improvements to a system where:

• tunnels are literally caving in for lack of maintenance, threatening reliability of service and the safety of passengers
• lack of improvements to service and decades-long delays in the construction of new lines mean New Yorkers are packed into cars beyond capacity, if not waiting as trains pass without stopping

Make no mistake: riders suffer every day for lack of capital expenditures, and lack of repair could one day threaten even the lives of New Yorkers. Pulling from those funds to simply maintain the status quo for another year, without solving the root problem, is an exercise in profound, destructive short-sightedness.

What is the problem to be solved? Yes, the MTA has a funding problem, but not only that. Ask yourself why:

• Every single project the MTA runs is years late and Millions over budget:
  • Subway Time-to-arrival boards: 5 years and $30 Million
  • Fulton Street Transit Center: 7 years and $140 Million
  • Bus Time-to-arrival boards: Indefinite and $14 Million
  • 2nd Ave Subway: Between 10 and 80 years late (yes, 80) and countless Billions
• While riders are getting fare hikes and service cuts, and non-union employees get a 10% pay cut, union employees get a guaranteed 11% in raises the next 3 years.
• When MTA whistleblowers stand up for New Yorkers by exposing the waste of having MTA workers paid for sitting idle for hours on end every single day was violently attacked in the subway and shoved onto an active track, losing teeth and risking his life in the process.

The problem is not only that the MTA has a funding problem. The MTA also has an accountability problem. A problem that has gone on for decades without a solution from Albany.

The solution is not to simply put off the problem by reallocating needed funds. The solution is to clean house. The MTA needs real accountability to the riders themselves in New York, not to politicians in Albany who have failed again and again to keep the MTA in check.

Certainly, when the MTA is a trustworthy operation, increasing funding would be long-overdue, but first we should have real assurances that this money won’t be blown on wasteful, incompetent or corrupt spending.

Accountability to the riders in New York is the only real, lasting solution which can set us on the path to progress rather than degradation.  The only solution which can lead to a transit system responsive to and worthy of the people of New York.

Ben Woosley

Executive Director, OurMTA