Cuomo’s Empty MTA Fury

Gov. Cuomo’s approach to MTA reform is now clear: The beatings will continue until morale improves. That’s the bottom line of his thundering after the release of a consultant’s plan to reorganize the agency — a plan that he himself sought and that largely calls for the changes he’s been demanding.

Yet he still told the MTA board that this transformation “will only be accomplished over the resistance of the bureaucracy,” adding: “This is not rocket science,” yet the agency suffers from a “chronic failure . . . to manage.”

“No more excuses, politics, drama, scapegoats,” he continued. “Either the management completes its tasks or it will have failed its public duty.”

Puh-lease. Cuomo’s been publicly waxing furious at the MTA ever since public uproar over transit trouble peaked during the 2017 Summer of Hell — and he sought to spread the blame.

The gov was in the crosshairs, since he has the most control over the agency. He chooses its top managers: current Chairman Pat Foye,

and Joe Lhota and Freddy Ferrer before him. He picks a near-majority of the board, too — with considerable sway over the rest.

As for his “transformation plan”: Nicole Gelinas noted on these pages this week that it isn’t terribly transformative. “An eighth-grade business class could have put it together.”

The document calls for consolidating some administrative offices, while setting up some new groups and leadership posts, like “chief engineering officer.” As part of the plan, MTA brass said this week, they’ll trim up to 2,700 jobs to save $500 million a year over the next three years.

Thing is, the agency’s been trimming management for years. Meanwhile, the report was radio silent about its biggest problem: winning major union-contract changes to contain costs and get the MTA’s finances on track. For starters, end the perverse culture of overtime abuse The Post exposed in recent months.

All the MTA’s union contracts are up now. If Cuomo isn’t willing to back a hardball approach in those talks, then he’s not truly willing to get tough after all.