The MTA is asking the city for even more money just days after Mayor Bill de Blasio relented and agreed to fund half of the emergency plan to bring the subways back from disaster.
Agency Chairman Joe Lhota insisted on Thursday morning that the city has to contribute significantly more to the MTA’s next capital plan than it has in the past.
“I know people don’t like it when I say this, but New York City does own the subway system,” Lhota said at an ABNY breakfast. “They lease it to us and we operate it. The reality is it’s a commitment, they owe it, and they should be paying their fare share when it comes to the capital program.”
The city forked over $2.5 billion to the current 2015-2019 capital plan, which goes toward the agency’s long-term infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, the state, which is in charge of the MTA, contributed $8.3 billion to the $32 billion budget.
But for the 2020-2024 plan, the city needs to cough up significantly more, said Lhota.
“It has to be an equity amount,” said the chairman, who refused to disclose an exact dollar amount.
Lhota’s statements come just days after de Blasio finally broke down and agreed to hand over $418 million. Hizzoner and Gov. Andrew Cuomo had been bickering over the ask since July.
Cuomo and Lhota both said the MTA wasted time in the eight months that it spent begging for cash from the city. Lhota said the MTA could have spent that time upgrading more signals, replacing more rails, and keeping cars and stations cleaner if they had the money to hire more workers.
“We’ve lost eight months of progress,” said Lhota.
City officials said the state and MTA should learn to spend money properly and take responsibility for their mess.
“The City of New York committed a record $2.5 billion to the last MTA capital plan, and just last week pledged to help fund a state effort to fix subways the state runs,” said de Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips. “Instead of constantly asking New Yorkers for more money, the state and MTA should learn to do their jobs within their budget and finally seek a sustainable revenue source so riders aren’t continually victimized by their blame game.”
