MTA Chief Pushes for NY to Stop Fighting Over Budget: ‘We Can’t Wait Forever’

Michelle Kaske
Updated ·2 min read

(Bloomberg) -- The head of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is urging state lawmakers to end their budget wrangling and fix the transit agency’s finances.

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The MTA, a state agency that operates New York City’s subways, buses and commuter lines, is caught up in the legislature’s overdue budget for the fiscal year that began April 1. The biggest US mass-transit system needs Albany to boost its funding to cover lost farebox revenue as many employees work part of the week from home. The state’s budget impasse is also holding up the MTA’s planned fare increases for this year.

The MTA has a $600 million budget shortfall this year that’s expected to increase to $3 billion in 2025 as federal coronavirus aid is set to run out. Absent additional state help, the transit agency will be forced to implement higher-than anticipated fare hikes, service cuts and layoffs.

“Because of the administrative procedures associated with all of those downside scenarios takes so long, we can’t wait forever,” Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chief executive officer, said Tuesday at the new Grand Central Madison terminal to promote the station serving 1 million Long Island Rail Road customers since opening in February.

The budget stalemate will most likely resolve in the next couple of weeks, Lieber said. While Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders have proposed different tax increases to help fund the MTA, state lawmakers it seems do agree on supporting the transit agency beyond this year.

Hochul is pushing to raise the state’s payroll mobility tax on certain businesses, a recurring funding source the MTA already receives.

The MTA is waiting for the state’s budget process to wrap up as the transit agency begins negotiating a new contract with its biggest labor union, TWU Local 100. The MTA’s labor costs may increase as the group is asking for wage hikes that account for inflation. MTA’s 2023 budget includes annual wage increases of 2%.

“We intend to resolve this collaboratively and to continue to make progress on ridership, and service and safety and cleanliness and what they contribute to,” Lieber said.

The union’s current contract expires May 15. Along with wage increases, the TWU is seeking hazard pay, increasing parental leave to six-months and a holiday to commemorate Covid victims. There were 110 confirmed Covid deaths among union members.

“Don’t try and nickel and dime us,” Richard Davis, president of TWU Local 100, said in a statement Monday. “Don’t try and balance the budget on our backs. Don’t dare suggest that we somehow owe a debt. We paid more than our fair share already.”

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