NEW YORK (AP) - The city will announce this week it’s bolstering its capital contribution to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority - but, mere days before that increase is unveiled, the MTA is asking for more.
City officials told The Associated Press on Monday that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s upcoming budget will include $125 million a year for the next five years for the MTA, the nation’s largest commuter transportation network. When combined with a $32 million city match to a federal grant, the funding will match the $657 million in capital contributions from the city that the MTA had requested last fall.
De Blasio on Monday said that the city was increasing funding because “mass transit is a lifeline for New Yorkers” but added that larger state and federal funding plan is needed to aid the MTA, which has a $14 billion capital budget deficit.
“A broader consensus is needed on how we’re going to sustain and grow the MTA,” de Blasio said in a statement.
But also on Monday, three days before de Blasio will officially unveil the funding increase during his executive and capital budget presentations, the MTA upped its request.
MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast wrote a letter delivered to First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris in which he increased the MTA’s request to $300 million a year to help keep the system in a state of good repair along with another $1 billion over the next five years for the next stage of the long-delayed 2nd Avenue subway project.
Prendergast wrote that the MTA’s finances are “critical to the future of the city itself” and noted that the system has suffered overcrowding and overuse and could soon top 6 million riders on some days.
“Now at this critical juncture, is the right time for the city to acknowledge the need for significantly increased investment in the MTA and the city’s future,” Prendergast wrote in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
City Hall officials defended their capital contribution as the largest from the city since 2000 - and said that their budget went to print last week.
“After our budget went to print with full funding for the MTA’s request,” said mayoral spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick, “we were surprised to learn this morning that they both nearly tripled their general capital ask and requested another $1 billion.”
For years, New York City had contributed $100 million annually to the MTA’s capital plan. Last fall, the MTA increased its request to $125 million.
Since then, the Independent Budget Office released an analysis that indicated that if the city matched its level of contribution with inflation, it would need to earmark $363 million a year to the MTA. The state budget approved earlier this year bolstered funding to the MTA by $1 billion, which included $250 million earmarked for building four Metro-North stations in the Bronx.
After de Blasio makes his presentation, the mayor’s office and the city council will embark in their final budget negotiations. A city budget must be passed by the end of June. It was not immediately clear if, during those negotiations, the city would consider further increasing its MTA contribution.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.