Rail mess is on gov: Blaz
IF YOU DON’T like your subway commute, blame Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio said Friday.
“If you like something happening in our subways or don’t like it, talk to the governor,” Hizzoner said on WNYC. “He’s in charge and he should just own up to it and take this responsibility seriously and put forward a plan.”
De Blasio’s comments blew his long-simmering feud with Cuomo wide open once again, and come after weeks of debacles and delays on the city’s subways, which are run by a state authority.
“Math and the facts are not the mayor’s forte, as we know,” Cuomo spokeswoman Dani Lever said in a statement. “The governor has six appointees on the MTA board out of 14 — last we checked that is not a majority.”
While Cuomo was happy to take ownership of the MTA earlier this year during the muchcelebrated opening of the Second Avenue subway, on Thursday he shifted to noting he merely appoints members to the MTA board, like other stakeholders — including de Blasio.
“That’s a fantasy, that’s absolutely inaccurate,” de Blasio said. “And he said earlier in the year he was in charge and he was focused, so let’s be clear. There’s a division of labor, it’s out in the open, let’s not kid around anymore.”
The governor appoints more members to the board than anyone else, and also appoints its chairman and CEO. His office pointed fingers at de Blasio for not ponying up the full amount it had sought from the city to fund the system’s capital repair plan.
“If the mayor hadn’t repeatedly refused to fully fund the MTA’s capital repair plan and short change the subway system, commuters would be in a much better place,” Lever said. “Real New Yorkers know we put our money where our mouth is — the state has invested $8.3 billion to fix the MTA while the city only put in $2.5 billion. If the mayor wants to help, let him fully fund his obligation.”
She argued that because the mayor has four board members to Cuomo’s six, he should kick in $5.5 billion to be in proportion with Cuomo’s $8.3 billion.
But de Blasio said Friday that he didn’t even have to put in the $2.5 billion, and while the state wants more, “that’s not how it works.”
“The MTA, unless the governor wants to turn the MTA over to the city of New York, the MTA is the state’s responsibility,” de Blasio said. “They have revenue. Now just like every other organization, they make choices within the revenue they have. What’s more important than making sure the trains run properly? I don’t know what else could compare in terms of the use of resources.”
De Blasio also hit back at the argument that his predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, had taken a more active role in contributing city money to extend the 7 line to Hudson Yards, calling it a “smokescreen from the Cuomo team.”
“There’s no comparison between the extension of the 7 line where the far west side of Manhattan was being developed for the first time versus the day-today operations of the subway system that are the MTA’s responsibility and the governor’s responsibility,” de Blasio said.