Jump to content

Cuomo and de Blasio At Odds Yet Again Over Latest Funding Plan For Subway


Recommended Posts

Ugly war of words after Gov. Cuomo says he wants to split subway plan funding with city

By DAN RIVOLI and MOLLY CRANE-NEWMAN | NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | JUL 12, 2018 | 2:15 PM

ny-1531417866-uy2nsr0q57-snap-image

Gov. Cuomo blasted Mayor de Blasio for balking on a "50/50 split" to fund a massive transit turnaround plan. (Susan Watts / New York Daily News)

Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio are in a standoff to see who’s budget will get busted for fixing the dilapidated subway — and their already nasty feud is getting even uglier.

Cuomo, who controls the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, wants the transit turnaround plan from NYC Transit President Andy Byford to be split between the state and the city, 50-50.

A rep for De Blasio, fresh from his first-ever talk with the man who’s been managing the subway and buses that carry his constituents since January, suggested the city won’t send more money to the MTA after the mayor “contributed a record amount bailing out Gov. Cuomo’s subway mismanagement.”

The rift on Thursday opened up when Cuomo was asked about funding Byford’s Fast Forward subway modernization plan, which could cost as much as $37 billion over 10 years.

Cuomo ripped the city for refusing to cover half the cost of repair the transit system needs – first, an intense, short-term $836 million emergency repair plan, and now the long-term modernization plan from Byford. He also likened the city to a landlord who should help keep the heat and hot water running, because it legally owns the subway property.

“I said 50/50 to New York City. New York City said no, even though it’s their legal obligation. I had to go to the Legislature and get a law to force the city to pay,” Cuomo said in the Bronx. “They have the full legal obligation, that’s the law, the state says we’ll pay 50/50. I’m not gonna raise fares, so the only option is the city and the state.”

qD5yC1kNIHwrMcX8?format=jpg&name=small

Molly Crane-Newman✔@molcranenewman

Did the MTA make you late to work this morning? I nearly missed this presser. There appears to be no end in sight to the governor and the mayor’s tug of war over who should pay to fix the city’s woeful subway system. @NYDailyNews @NYGovCuomo @NYCMayor @MTA

1:08 PM - Jul 12, 2018 · Bronx, NY

Cuomo also chided de Blasio for publicly criticizing his idea to pay for the subway modernization plan with a fee on vehicles in Manhattan below 60th St. Lawmakers were only able to pass a congestion fee on for-hire car trips, like taxis and Ubers, below 96th St.

“Long-term, I propose congestion pricing – the city’s against that also. Well, then, what is your answer? ... That’s the question on the table: who is gonna pay? And that’s been the question for the past 80 years, and that’s why you’ve seen the deterioration in the city,” Cuomo said. “I don’t think there’s anything more reasonable than 50/50.”

De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips used Cuomo’s comments to pitch de Blasio’s proposed tax on wealthy New Yorkers – and to take a shot at the governor.

ny-1531418036-nz8i8pvpnh-snap-image

De Blasio fired back at Cuomo, blaming him for "failing miserably to secure a sustainable revenue source" for transit. (Todd Maisel / New York Daily News)

“After failing miserably to secure a sustainable revenue source, we knew the governor would be back for more. The mayor has contributed a record amount bailing out Gov. Cuomo’s subway mismanagement,” Phillips wrote. “Rather than constantly asking for more from all our riders and taxpayers, the governor should pass a millionaire’s tax to fix the trains he’s run into the ground.”

Cuomo’s press secretary Dani Lever on Twitter responded to the slam with one of her own, highlighting the de Blasio administration’s lead poisoning crisis at NYCHA.

“Well, we already know that the mayor thinks there are ‘bigger, sharper problems’ than the poisoning of N.Y.C.’s children and fixing the subways that millions of his constituents ride each day and which he is legally responsible for funding,” Lever wrote.

Phillips said the remarks were in line with what the mayor discussed with Byford on Tuesday.

“Byford asked for more money. The mayor said no,” Phillips said. “That doesn’t mean they won’t work together on other things.”

After the Tuesday hour-long one-on-one talk, Byford said he pressed the mayor on the need for multiple sources of funding for his plan and that the mayor was “left in no uncertain terms as to how strongly I feel about this funding piece.”

ny-1531418186-x5elqovapz-snap-image

NYC Transit boss Andrew Byford says he pushed de Blasio in a recent meeting to find multiple funding sources to pay for his overhaul plan. (Jefferson Siegel / New York Daily News)

Byford had said that he and the mayor agreed to meet on subway funding once every three months – an idea Phillips stressed was a “joint idea” between the two officials.

“There’s no plan to deviate from that,” Phillips said.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-metro-cuomo-de-blasio-subway-funding-20180712-story.html

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites


This is so completely insane. NYC taxpayers fund 70% of the subway ALREADY through our state taxes, and now this incompetent thief wants to pinch the city for more. Appalling. Cuomo has no shame. It is and always has been a STATE-RUN agency.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, MHV9218 said:

This is so completely insane. NYC taxpayers fund 70% of the subway ALREADY through our state taxes, and now this incompetent thief wants to pinch the city for more. Appalling. Cuomo has no shame. It is and always has been a STATE-RUN agency.

I'm just annoyed in general at the (MTA) constantly asking us for more damn money.  Enough is enough! They just got $836 million to supposedly "stabilize" the system. I don't see much of a difference. Now they're coming back with their hands out again for another $30+ BILLION.  They should be audited to see where in the hell all of this money is going. The one thing I do agree about with de Blasio is the City should get an account of where the money is being spent. We're looking at fare increases in 2019, and service quite frankly hasn't improved much at all.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, MHV9218 said:

Cuomo has no shame. It is and always has been a STATE-RUN agency.

Give de Blasio more input on how to run NYCT (including when to shut down city subways and buses if we have more than 2 inches of snow) and maybe then we can talk about a 50/50 split.

The City only owns the tunnels and the stations. They don't own the equipment, they don't sign NYCT employee paychecks and they darn sure don't have a controlling stake in NYCT.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, MHV9218 said:

This is so completely insane. NYC taxpayers fund 70% of the subway ALREADY through our state taxes, and now this incompetent thief wants to pinch the city for more. Appalling. Cuomo has no shame. It is and always has been a STATE-RUN agency.

Cuomo is appeasing upstate donors and is looking ahead to a 2020 Presidential bid.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I'm just annoyed in general at the (MTA) constantly asking us for more damn money.  Enough is enough! They just got $836 million to supposedly "stabilize" the system. I don't see much of a difference. Now they're coming back with their hands out again for another $30+ BILLION.  They should be audited to see where in the hell all of this money is going. The one thing I do agree about with de Blasio is the City should get an account of where the money is being spent. We're looking at fare increases in 2019, and service quite frankly hasn't improved much at all.  

As I'm sure I've told you before, SAP was a failure because it misidentified the root cause of this mess. Now, with Byford waking up the agency to the fact that our op environment might as well be putting square wheels on trains, that's changing. There are sweeping reforms afoot...

On the monetary side of things, I tend to agree with you. While I think CBTC/related improvements are necessary, the agency needs a course of fiscal rigor to make sure that that cash is being put to its highest and best use. This, too, is being addressed, actually. There are two task forces (one for NYCT operating procurements, one for capex in general) lead by Charles Moerdler and Scott Rechler, respectively, looking for quickly implementable ways to hasten procurement processes, lower costs, and increase competition. They presented their findings at last month's MTA board meeting. I highly recommend you (and everyone here) watch

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, RR503 said:

As I'm sure I've told you before, SAP was a failure because it misidentified the root cause of this mess. Now, with Byford waking up the agency to the fact that our op environment might as well be putting square wheels on trains, that's changing. There are sweeping reforms afoot...

On the monetary side of things, I tend to agree with you. While I think CBTC/related improvements are necessary, the agency needs a course of fiscal rigor to make sure that that cash is being put to its highest and best use. This, too, is being addressed, actually. There are two task forces (one for NYCT operating procurements, one for capex in general) lead by Charles Moerdler and Scott Rechler, respectively, looking for quickly implementable ways to hasten procurement processes, lower costs, and increase competition. They presented their findings at last month's MTA board meeting. I highly recommend you (and everyone here) watch

Charles Moerdler lives in my neighborhood is on our Community Board. He is highly respected here in Riverdale and he happens to be one of the few (MTA) Board members that I enjoy listening to. I've also enjoyed my interactions with another fellow Riverdalian (Fernando Ferrer) who is also on the (MTA) Board.  I spoke with him during the Metro-North hearing in North Riverdale for increased service and he was very open to hearing feedback from the community.  I think "Chuck" will be on top of this whole procurement review.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I'm just annoyed in general at the (MTA) constantly asking us for more damn money.  Enough is enough! They just got $836 million to supposedly "stabilize" the system. I don't see much of a difference. Now they're coming back with their hands out again for another $30+ BILLION.  They should be audited to see where in the hell all of this money is going. The one thing I do agree about with de Blasio is the City should get an account of where the money is being spent. We're looking at fare increases in 2019, and service quite frankly hasn't improved much at all.  

 

In an interesting twist of irony, your audit will find that the (MTA) and its operating agencies spend millions of dollars on... audits!!  The (MTA) is already the most audited agency in the whole state and is required to pay for every audit. How many more audits do you want?

 

Then there's labor. People like to assume that the revenue doesn't have to be spent because people work for free. Not so.

 

Plus, part of the question isn't where the money went but where it didn't come from (because Mr. Governor  or the Legislature appropriated it for upstate pork barrels).

 

As for the 2019 fare increase, the Legislature passed a law back in 2010 requiring fare increases every two years. Then those same legislators complain about the fare increases.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

 

In an interesting twist of irony, your audit will find that the (MTA) and its operating agencies spend millions of dollars on... audits!!  The (MTA) is already the most audited agency in the whole state and is required to pay for every audit. How many more audits do you want?

 

Then there's labor. People like to assume that the revenue doesn't have to be spent because people work for free. Not so.

 

Plus, part of the question isn't where the money went but where it didn't come from (because Mr. Governor  or the Legislature appropriated it for upstate pork barrels).

 

As for the 2019 fare increase, the Legislature passed a law back in 2010 requiring fare increases every two years. Then those same legislators complain about the fare increases.

The fare increases every two years was supposed to help ease the need for more and more money.  Instead all we keep hearing is we need more and more and more and more and more. The black hole.  If we saw some improvements it would be one thing, but service across the board is either the same or worse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

The fare increases every two years was supposed to help ease the need for more and more money.  Instead all we keep hearing is we need more and more and more and more and more. The black hole.  If we saw some improvements it would be one thing, but service across the board is either the same or worse.

The fare increases mostly cover increases in debt service, because Giuliani and Pataki abandoned the rule where the State and City would each chip in a third of the Capital Plans, and the MTA made up for the lost money using debt. All so that we can claim that the state and city budgets are "balanced", which is a crock of shit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After reading the whole article  (yesterday) I wasn't surprised by the childish fight between DeBlasio and Cuomo. But one thing for sure is if this feud keeps up (let alone escalates), people might eventually boycott the (MTA) which will make our streets worse and can cause a Domino effect

On 7/13/2018 at 10:40 AM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

:Well, we already know that the mayor thinks there are ‘bigger, sharper problems’ than the poisoning of N.Y.C.’s children and fixing the subways that millions of his constituents ride each day and which he is legally responsible for funding,” Lever wrote.

Well no wonder why school lunch sucks. But that's irrelevant. When's the next Mayoral election?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, LTA1992 said:

Every time I see this thread, it grinds my gears.

I was waiting for when this mess would begin. And honestly? It took longer than I expected.

That's actually the one train that's never late.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The  next mayoral election will be in 2021. Chances are the Republican Party in this city will still be divided as it was in 2017 so the Republican candidate will have no chance of winning the election. If you want to know the reason why the Republicans will never win another mayoral election, the answer can be found in a 2012 New York State Senate and Congressional Race in Brooklyn where the seats that were formally held by Democrats went to Republicans for the first time in 80 years. Right after that the two districts disappeared due to the redistricting based on the 2010 census and it went back to the Democrats. The Republican who was elected to the Congressional Seat is the same person who is now head of the Queens County Republican Party. 

The last time that the transit system had the problems it has now, there were elected leaders who cared about the transit system and who chose leaders to run the system, not political hacks as we have seen up and until Mr. Byford was chosen. Hugh Carey and Ed Koch cared about the system and both David Gunn and Richard Ravitch did everything that they could to mobilize and made the improvements necessary  to get the system working. It paid off for the city, state and most importantly for those who work and reside in this city. 

We have the individual who wants to make the commitment to bring the system back after both parties on the gubernatorial and mayoral levels let it slide as in reality, they too had presidential aspirations and considered New York City and the subway system like the albatross around the Mariner's neck from the "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Coleridge (Do they still read the poem in the 9th grade?). This is the first time that I can remember that both the mayor and the governor have dreams of running for president at the same time and they have no intention of helping out the subway system as they both figure that each will be long out of office when the system comes crashing down. The business community is extremely worried and the opinion piece by Nicole Gelicas of the Manhattan Institute in the New York Post states it quite clearly and emphatically how important the subway is to keep this city competitive on the national and world stage.

Both the mayor and the governor want to criticize the president for every little thing and will use every issue as a photo op and an opportunity to get their faces in the mainstream media even though it does not make any sense whatsoever. What the mayor, governor and the president all have in common is their ignorance of history. Those of us who have studied American history in depth are asking if anyone remembers "Hawley Smoot" and the damage that it did to this country and the world. Congress is catching on but has a lot of work to do right now as many members are afraid of the consequences of a tariff war and its impact upon the country . This is why both the governor and the mayor should forget their running for president and start making sure that the city transit system gets the money to keep upgrading the system as what must b done today cannot wait until tomorrow.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, bobtehpanda said:

The fare increases mostly cover increases in debt service, because Giuliani and Pataki abandoned the rule where the State and City would each chip in a third of the Capital Plans, and the MTA made up for the lost money using debt. All so that we can claim that the state and city budgets are "balanced", which is a crock of shit.

Hit the nail right on the head! Those two dolts really screwed the MTA and riders. Unfortunately the two dolts currently holding those offices seem to have no intention of reversing Giuliani and Pataki’s big screw job. It would be so much more productive if they did that instead of sniping at each other like two stupid little boys!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, T to Dyre Avenue said:

Hit the nail right on the head! Those two dolts really screwed the MTA and riders. Unfortunately the two dolts currently holding those offices seem to have no intention of reversing Giuliani and Pataki’s big screw job. It would be so much more productive if they did that instead of sniping at each other like two stupid little boys!

Unfortunately, the person who probably would've turned around the Albany ship was Eliot Spitzer. He got pretty far down that road before his scandal and resignation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There definitely needs to be more supervision as to where this money is going to. The MTA gets all this money and burns it on what? They hire these contractors that don’t do the work that needs to get done and you end up with the same work that’s needs to be done over and over again. Then you also have work that takes forever to get done like rehabilitation of 121st on the (J) line and the (F) in Brooklyn. 

I swear we keep seeing the same closures over and over again and I’m like didn’t they just do this work a month ago? I understand things need to be maintained and checked on, but if the system itself is showing no signs of improvement, then what’s the point of disrupting the system, to so call “fix” these issue? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, kosciusko said:

Anything to get him far away from the (MTA) I'll support with every bone in my body.

Cuomo 2020 somehow manages to combine the worst aspects of Christie 2016 and Hillary 2016 as well as Guiliani 2008.

Someone should really tell him to quit while he is (barely) ahead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cuomo will get the same amount of support as another former governor who ran in the 2016 Republican Presidential primary, George Pataki. 

DeBlasio will find that he will fall just like another former mayor John Lindsay who ran in the 1972 Democratic Presidential primary.

Both of these men have egos bigger than Mount Rushmore and there are other candidates running for President who will gather more support than these two individuals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Exactly. If they're so excited to be the 'leaders of the free world,' where's their leadership on adequate heating for NYCHA and something better than vacuum tubes and mismanagement for NYCT. 

Disgusting. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.