MTA chair tells New York lawmakers the agency needs billions and it's up to them to figure out how to get it
NEW YORK - The MTA says it needs more than $68 billion to fund its capital plan for subway improvements.
The head of the agency told lawmakers Thursday it's up to them to figure out how to raise the money.
The MTA's aging 120-year-old subway system is in dire need of a fix.
"We need to make sure that the structures, the tunnels, the elevated structures don't fall down, fall apart. We need to make sure that the power system which blew up recently a couple times in Brooklyn and Columbus Circle are not left to rot for another generation. That we have new cars that are not 40, 50, 60 years old," Lieber said.
Lieber spoke with CBS News New York after he went hat in hand to Albany asking lawmakers to fund the agency's new $68.4 billion five-year capital plan.
"The most cost-efficient transit organization in the United States"
During his testimony, he touted the MTA's growing ridership.
"Ridership has grown dramatically in the last two years. The subways are regularly carrying more than four million people a day – more than the entire U.S. aviation system," Lieber said.
He told lawmakers he only needs about $33 billion to fill the gap, insisting it's a good investment.
"MTA's budget is actually 3% lower now than it was in 2019. That's right – 3% lower even with a ton of extra subway and rail service, not to mention a new 714,000 square foot terminal at Grand Central Madison and hundreds more elevators to maintain. How many other agencies can say the same? Delivering much more, at a lower cost," Lieber said. "The MTA is actually the most efficient transit organization in the United States, based on the cost per rider and subsidy per rider. We are the best deal."
New York City Councilmember Robert Holden took issue with that.
"Claiming the MTA is the best-managed transit system in the country? Give me a break. He knows it's false, I know it, and you know it," Holden wrote on social media.
"We owe it to New Yorkers"
Lieber was undeterred. During the hearings, he suggested several ways the legislature could come up with the money, including new taxes or a revenue stream. Lieber thinks the legislature should look at the MTA as another department of state government and find the money within the state's $250 billion budget.
"Marcia. I think the key is that, you know, state government, all branches of state government, have to stop talking about the MTA capital program like it's a surprise, and that they don't have to fund it. Just like they fund education and Medicaid, we owe it to New Yorkers," Lieber said.
It's not clear from the hearing whether the lawmakers bought Lieber's argument. In the past, they have created new taxes like mobility taxes on businesses to pay for transit upgrades. Several state senators and assemblymen think some new revenue stream may be necessary, Kramer reported. Congestion pricing, however, may make them think twice.
Although the early results show some decrease in congestion, the program is wildly unpopular in the suburbs and outer boroughs, and since next year is an election year for the governor and all the members of the senate and assembly, they may may think twice before they agree to a new tax.
The congestion pricing plan is projected to raise $15 billion to fund projects from the MTA's previous capital plan.
The proposed $68 billion plan for the coming five years compares to the MTA's $55 billion capital plan for 2020-2024 and $33 billion for 2015-2019.
"It wasn't necessarily fully shocking to us because the MTA does do a needs assessment. That needs assessment very clearly states that there are power, there are track, there are station needs that – this stuff just needs to get done," New York State Deputy Comptroller Rahul Jain said.
Lieber touted a return on investment – improved performance for the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North and added subway service – while haunting lawmakers with the ghost of subway's past, the 2017 so-called "Summer of Hell" when the transit system all but fell apart.
"We've tried not funding the MTA capital, and that's where it brought us," Lieber said.
The state budget is due in April.
