NYC council enters city vs state fight over MTA funding

A debate is brewing between Albany and the City Council over funding for the MTA.

“To put your request in perspective the $3.2 billion you’ve demanded from the city over five years would amount to more than 10% of what the city would typically spend on capital projects over the same period”, the letter ads.

Two New York council members say the city shouldn’t pay any more than what’s already been allotted to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It is now around $2.6 billion after contributions and increased self-funding, according to the Citizens Budget Commission, a budget watchdog.

The cost of the plan runs to nearly $30 billion through 2019.

Commuter advocates like the Riders Alliance said despite the storms between the state and city, the MTA is close to paying for the $26.8 billion capital plan.

Transit Workers Union Local 100 this week placed an ad in media outlets that depicted de Blasio as the operator of a train covered in graffiti and straight out of a very different New York City.

De Blasio said he’s concerned that if the city provides the $3 billion, the state will continue to raid MTA funds. “Instead of recruiting surrogates to make false attacks, the State must do its job and work with the City on a fair and responsible framework to move forward”.

Cuomo called that argument “a joke” in the latest installment of the feud between the New York’s top Democrats. The mayor’s office said the Cuomo administration has taken at least $270 million in operating funds since 2011 to benefit the state’s general fund.