Transit Funding

Can you spot the flaw in this excerpt from the New York Times' Saturday backgrounder on MTA chief Jay Walder’s pending departure for Hong Kong?

Jay Walder's surprise resignation announcement last week overshadowed some important news about the MTA's finances: The agency has identified $2 billion in savings in its capital program [PDF], which maintains and expands the transit system, but expects $1 billion less in federal assistance. That brings the total gap in the five-year, $26 billion capital plan to $9 billion that must be accounted for by the end of the year. This enormous deficit will define the political context in which Governor Andrew Cuomo chooses Walder's replacement.

Rep. John Mica's proposed transportation bill would take a machete to federal transportation spending, cutting overall transportation funding by a third and entirely eliminating dedicated funds for pedestrian and bike infrastructure.

The transit lockbox bill, designed to prevent future raids on dedicated transit funds, has passed the State Assembly, according to the Assembly's website. Having already passed the Senate, the legislation now only needs the signature of Governor Andrew Cuomo to become law.

In a letter to Finance Committee leaders [PDF], 25 senators today urged adequate funding for mass transit in the next transportation authorization bill.

Today’s Senate Banking Committee hearing held some good news for transit riders. Unintuitive though it may be, Banking has jurisdiction over public transportation in the Senate. While in the House, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee handles every aspect of the reauthorization, in the Senate the bill gets carved up. Environment and Public Works is taking the lead, with the specifics on transit left to Banking. Luckily, there are some transit champions on Banking: Jack Reed (D-RI), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) to name a few.

If your roads are congested, your bus lines are getting cut, and money is flowing to brand-new roads to nowhere, don’t blame your mayor. Chances are, he or she is as mad about it as you are. Mayors are speaking out against ineffective transportation funding mechanisms that direct scarce resources to sprawling highways and away from urban transit and safer streets for walking and biking

Last week we wrote about how the looming $10 billion deficit in the MTA's capital plan could lead to a $3.00 fare and $137 monthly pass within three years. That's not the only way the transit authority could decide to respond to a lack of funding, however.

With each passing month, the MTA comes closer to the day of reckoning on its unfunded capital plan -- the maintenance work that keeps trains and buses running and the expansion projects that provide more access to the system. While the first two years of the 2010-2014 capital budget were funded, there is a $10 billion deficit in the remaining three. So far, there doesn't seem to be any plan from the city, state, or federal government to find this funding. In fact, between the State Senate's goal of repealing the MTA payroll tax and the House GOP's budget-slashing, there may be more obvious paths to the MTA losing revenue than gaining it.