It’s starting to look like Gov. Cuomo’s real MTA agenda is to turn the nation’s largest and most important mass-transit agency into a funhouse Hall of Mirrors.
On the Brian Lehrer show Wednesday, Cuomo insisted again that he doesn’t control the MTA and called for a restructuring to give him that control. Meanwhile, the gov was flexing his MTA-controlling muscles by blocking a long-planned fare and toll hike.
That move came a few days after Cuomo publicly complained that today’s governing structure was set up to allow for fare hikes without any politician taking the blame.
Delaying the hikes will cost the MTA around $30 million a month. Larry Schwartz, Cuomo’s alter ego on the board, is suddenly insisting any increases be conditioned on “performance metrics.” Sounds great — but if it’s that easy, why did the gov wait eight years to bring up the idea?
Meanwhile, Cuomo is pushing congestion-pricing fees to fix the agency’s finances — though the scheme on the table doesn’t even plug the gap in the MTA’s operating budget, let alone fund the at least $40 billion Fast Forward modernization plan.
Plus, the congestion fees that Cuomo pushed through last year are now held up in court — in part because the yellow-cab industry argues, credibly enough, that they’d lead to a new, larger wave of medallion-owner bankruptcies (and suicides).
Meanwhile, the Cuomo-dominated MTA continues to pursue big new capital projects, such as bringing Metro-North trains into Penn Station and siting four new Metro-North stations in “transit deserts” in The Bronx. Sounds great, and some outside funds are already lined up — but it’s still bizarre for a supposedly cash-starved agency that would have to come up with at least $550 million more to get it done.
Then there’s the talk of a new LIRR station by the Belmont Racetrack — which could cost a cool $1 billion — simply to make a new rink for the Islanders practical.
All this as MTA flacks (who don’t dare give an answer that will outrage the gov) try to spin the bad news that Cuomo’s L-train-repair “rescue” could be a nightmare, with a draft plan envisioning 20-minute waits between trains (vs. four minutes at rush hour now) and other major service cuts.
Board members, as well as regular MTA staff, are plainly terrified of the governor, while his rants and stunts leave the riding public clueless as to what’s coming next. Maybe Cuomo isn’t trying to build a funhouse, but a torture chamber.