(The Center Square) — New York legislative leaders have rejected a $65.4 billion plan to upgrade the state’s beleaguered mass transit system, citing a lack of funding for the proposed improvements.
In a letter to Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Janno Lieber, Senate President Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the agency’s five-year capital program faces a “significant funding deficit” estimated at more than $33 billion that “needs to be addressed before we can approve the program.”
“Closing the MTA’s proposed 2025-2029 capital plan deficit may require state legislative action, or identifying additional non-state revenue sources, and can be solved during the upcoming legislative session in the context of the state budget negotiations,” the lawmakers wrote.
The Democratic leaders said they plan to negotiate the amount of funding available for the MTA’s capital plan in the upcoming state budget, which is due by the end of March.
The move leaves the MTA in limbo with a laundry list of capital improvement projects — some of which were set to go into effect on Jan. 1 — on hold and sets the stage for work could be contentious negotiations between legislative leaders and Gov. Kathy Hochul over a new state budget.
“Now that the Legislature has raised these objections to the capital plan, we look forward to seeing their recommendations on which of those projects should be deprioritized and which revenue streams they are willing to propose,” Hochul’s spokesperson Avi Small said in a statement.
The MTA’s capital plans outline a list of construction projects aimed at keeping the nation’s largest transit system’s infrastructure running or expanding service. That includes orders for new subway cars to replace the MTA’s half-century-old trains and electric buses. The MTA’s current capital plan was approved with a $51.5 billion price tag but has since risen to $54.8 billion, according to the transit agency.
The agency delayed billions of dollars worth of other upgrades after Hochul’s temporary “pause” of a congestion pricing program earlier this year. Hochul resurrected in November with a reduced base fare of $9 – down from the original plan of $15. The retooled program goes into effect on Jan. 5, but it’s unclear how much money will be available.
MTA spokesperson John McCarthy said the funding requests in the capital plan were outlined in a state report on transportation needs and noted that lawmakers didn’t raise any objections to the plan when the MTA Board of Directors approved it in September. Stewart-Cousins and Heastie are sitting members of the MTA’s Capital Plan Review Board, which has oversight of the agency’s capital spending.
“It will unlock dozens of transformative projects – many of which are funded and ready to go on January 1st,” McCarthy said in a statement. “We remain optimistic that the legislature will join the governor in supporting safer, more reliable, and expanded transit.”
