Adams trains his fire on gov demand for $500M per year
Mayor Adams pushed back Monday on Gov. Hochul’s plan to have the city pony up an additional $500 million annually to help prop up the fiscally ailing MTA.
In his strongest words yet on the subject, Adams said that taxpayers simply don’t have the cash to spare out of the city’s $103 billion budget.
“No, we do not,” he said on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York.”
“That is too much money . ... What is even more troubling [is] no other municipality in the state is being asked to make that contribution to the MTA’s system. I’m just not clear on why, but we’re going to sit down and have a conversation with the governor, [who] I believe understands what the city has been going through.”
Adams’ remarks Monday came five days after Hochul unveiled a budget that seeks to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority through a payroll tax hike on downstate businesses, new casino revenue and the $500 million a year outlay from the city’s coffers.
Adams said his administration is “concerned” about some of the fiscal requirements coming from the state in general, but singled out the $500 million as particularly difficult to swallow, especially given the fiscal hardships the city is bracing for in the years ahead.
“There’s some good stuff in the budget for the City of New York,” he said of Hochul’s spending plan.
“We’re a little bit concerned about the fiscal requirements — particularly the $500 million. That’s not a one-shot, let’s be clear about that. That’s a half a billion dollars for the duration of our lives, I guess,” he said. “Half a billion dollars is a lot of money, particularly when you look at in 2025, we’re going to hit a fiscal cliff. I keep saying this over and over again. Federal dollars are going to run out.”
A spokeswoman for Hochul referred to the governor’s declaration last week that the state cannot “disinvest” from the MTA.
“This is a long-term strategy,” she said. “We’re making sure New Yorkers know we are prioritizing the long-term viability of the MTA because we have no choice.”
Janno Lieber, the MTA’s CEO, didn’t seem too discouraged by Adams’ initial reluctance to pony up the cash.
“The mayor went on TV and expressed disagreement. That’s OK, because he was thrilled, I know, with the governor’s proposal, broadly speaking. A discussion has to unfold,” Lieber said Monday morning at an MTA budget hearing. “The partnership between the mayor and the governor is fantastic — unprecedented — as evidenced by the success of the subway safety initiative.”
“I hope and expect it’ll get worked out,” Lieber added. “It’s still on the table.”
The $500 million in question would include cash for paratransit, bus passes and other accessibility initiatives Hochul wants the city to assume responsibility for funding.
Aside from federal COVID relief eventually drying up, Adams also voiced concerns about other, relatively new fiscal requirements the city is looking at, including the state’s mandate that New York reduce class sizes in public schools as well as the struggle to pay for the more than 43,000 migrants who have come here in less than a year’s time.
“We’re in a financial crisis,” Adams said. “I have to be fiscally prudent to navigate us throughout this turbulent period.”