Statement on Nomination of Budget Director Rob Mujica to MTA Board
Rob Mujica is a smart, capable budget director, but he’s not a reasonable candidate for the MTA Board. Mujica is not a resident of the MTA area, as a long-standing law requires. He already serves on 28 public authority boards other than MTA. Plus, under state law he has a major conflict of interest. The MTA must ask him, as budget director, for a waiver if they chose not to use design/build on contracts over $25M. This gives Mujica far greater leverage over the MTA than other board members. Lastly, we wonder how Mujica can fulfill his fiduciary duty to MTA while serving as state budget director — a job that may require him to propose damaging cuts in state aid to the MTA.
