HIGH HOPES
Blaz: ‘If anyone thinks that money can be found in the city budget (for MTA), they may be smoking marijuana.’ — Um, he may mean you, Andy
Mayor de Blasio tried Monday to harsh the buzz among Gov. Cuomo and others in Albany that the city needs to cough up more taxpayer green to fix the subways.
“If anyone thinks that money can be found in the city budget, they may be smoking marijuana,” de Blasio said. “The fact is, it just isn’t there.”
As straphangers wait on grimy subway platforms for rides in rickety subway cars slowed by ancient signals and aging track equipment, de Blasio and Cuomo are arguing over who will pay to make the system better.
The latest money feud between the governor and the mayor arose Sunday when Cuomo’s budget chief issued a statement saying that if the congestion pricing plan Cuomo wants in next year’s state budget doesn’t provide enough cash for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state and the city should enter a joint venture and split the shortfall fifty-fifty.
“An even split is more than generous,” said state budget director Robert Mujica.
But de Blasio — during a trip to Coney Island to announce city plans to spend more money on ferry routes that compete with subways and buses — said other municipal needs, such as affordable housing, new school seats and road paving, limit City Hall’s ability to hand over more cash to the MTA.
The city is “is already stretched to the limit in terms of all the things we do with our capital budget,” de Blasio said. “We’re not in a position to pay for the MTA. We’re not going to be in a position to pay for the MTA.”
The MTA’s financial needs — which would include NYC Transit President Andy Byford’s ambitious overhaul of the subway and its antiquated signal system with new technology — could be as high as $60 billion.
It’s unclear exactly how much of that cost would be rolled into the city’s tax base, which is supported by property taxes, income taxes and other levies.
Sources familiar with Cuomo’s plans responded to de Blasio by saying that if the city agrees to a fifty-fifty split in capital costs beyond what can be funded by congestion pricing and other revenue, Cuomo is prepared to let the city retain its veto power over the MTA’s capital budget.
Cuomo reiterated Monday that he wants more control over the MTA’s affairs. “I’m am willing to assume responsibility, but I’m not doing it without authority,” Cuomo said on the upstate radio program “The Capitol Connection.”
Cuomo, who has the power to pick the MTA’s chairman, said he believes true accountability for transit is skewed by MTA bureaucracy and by the agency’s board, which was set up in the 1960s so mayors and governors would not be blamed for fare increases.
State lawmakers will ultimately decide whether the MTA is reformed, the governor said.
“It’s up to them,” Cuomo said. “If they want to keep this mess, then let them keep doing what they’re doing.”