Gov Hochul Owes MTA $19B, Is Sabotaging 2025-29 Capital Plan Before It Starts

We believe the MTA’s new capital plan, though very large, realistically reflects the huge backlog of projects needed to keep trains and buses rolling. The capital plan’s $68 billion price tag matches the mid-range cost estimate from the NYS Comptroller, yet still comes nowhere near meeting the $106 billion in state of good repair needs identified by the Citizens Budget Commission. 

Unfortunately, Governor Hochul’s derailment of congestion pricing severely sabotages both the current MTA capital plan and the massive 2025-2029 plan announced today. 

The problem is that with every day without congestion pricing, the amount Governor Hochul owes to the MTA for the current 2020-2024 capital plan grows. Worse, on top of the $15 billion in missing congestion pricing revenue, she has also endangered or lost $1.5 billion in lost federal matching dollars and has failed to deliver $2.5 billion in NYS capital dollars. This totals $19 billion in capital dollars Governor Hochul already owes to transit riders for new subway trains, buses, modern signals, and elevators. 

Governor Hochul’s transit math does not add up: The MTA cannot keep its system working without congestion pricing. The current $55 billion 2020-2024 plan included $25 billion in new revenue sources – including $15 billion from congestion pricing. Given this, it is reasonable to assume – even if congestion pricing is turned on – that the new $68 billion plan will require at least $30 billion to $35 billion in new state dedicated taxes.

Reinvent Albany and transit groups wrote to Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie earlier this week and reminded them that these new sources of funding are needed for the currently unfunded 2025-2029 plan – not to backfill the funding for the current capital plan that is supposed to come from congestion pricing. The groups also reminded the legislative leaders that if they do nothing the MTA has to borrow more, which hurts service and translates into higher fares for working class people already struggling to make ends meet.  

Highlights 

$5.4 billion in new signals, 2,000 new rolling stock purchases, $9 billion in critical infrastructure repairs, $4 billion in power substations, $700 million in subway resiliency, and more – all of which are essential to providing safe and reliable transit service.   

Reinvent Albany will provide further analysis of the 2025-2029 capital plan in the coming days.