As Gov. Kathy Hochul prepares to implement her revised congestion-pricing plan to extract from motorists an additional funding source to feed the MTA’s insatiable appetite, it must be underscored that the agency doesn’t have a revenue problem — it has a spending problem. Ultimately, the only means by which this behemoth can be brought under control is via the implementation of a financial control board to monitor its expenditures.
The Center for Cost Effective Government think tank, for which I serve as executive director, issued an opinion piece in September calling for the state to impose such a board as an alternative to enacting the new congestion pricing fees and tolls. Fortunately, our suggestion did not fall on deaf ears. In recent weeks, State Sen. Dean Murray introduced legislation to do just that.
While Hochul may be reticent to pull the trigger on such a monitor due to potential municipal union fallout, there is a good chance she can be incentivized if the feds provide a carrot, by infusing a one-shot outlay of funds in return for the state agreeing to impose a control board that could finally rein in the uncontrolled spending and inefficiencies of this seemingly unaccountable quasi-governmental entity.
President-elect Donald Trump has already expressed his opposition to congestion pricing, but he may be limited in his authority to curtail its implementation. He may, however, be willing to entertain an infusion of cash to the struggling MTA if it is linked to a long-term plan to streamline the agency, along the lines of what is being promoted in his new Department of Government Efficiency.
Control boards come with the authority to rescind onerous contract provisions and inefficient rules and regulations that otherwise could only come about through collective bargaining. They can also put the brakes on excessive borrowing and establish oversight on expenditures. Control boards were used to revive New York City in the 1970s, as well as various New York counties, including Nassau, when they were on the precipice of financial collapse.
This is especially necessary for an MTA that lost an estimated $690 million in unpaid fares and tolls in 2022, while compensating engineers and conductors $283,000 annually, and awarding $10,000-per-month pensions. More than 1,100 employees double their salaries in 2023, as the agency’s overtime bill skyrocketed to nearly $1.3 billion. One year, one MTA employee earned $344,000 in overtime alone. All this inefficiency has led to a budget gap of $2.5 billion and a tripling of subway service delays between 2012 and 2017.
Is it any wonder that constructing a mile of subway in New York City costs seven times what it costs to do the same in other parts of the country?
The MTA is so devoid of oversight that at one point, nearly 97 percent of Long Island Rail Road retirees took advantage of the disability system.
Without a control board that can rein in the agency’s continually escalating spending, it won’t be long until state leaders come back to taxpayers, transit riders and motorists to seek yet another increase in fees and taxes to keep the MTA afloat.
The proposal to link federal aid to a control board would solve all the problems inherent in this congestion-pricing dilemma. If successful, all sides could declare victory, especially beleaguered taxpayers and motorists.
In other transit-related news, our center’s white paper, issued in 2023, calling for Long Island to be designated as its own Metropolitan Planning Organization, has also gained traction. Our study noted that the Island is shortchanged by billions of dollars in highway and transit aid because we fall under the umbrella of the New York City plan. When billions flow to the Second Avenue Subway or the Hudson Yards project, the feds count that as money coming to Long Island. With a population of 3 million, the Island would be the nation’s third largest city, yet we get a mere fraction of aid that flows to comparable locales such as Los Angeles or Chicago.
Last year, County Executive Ed Romaine, Assemblyman Steve Stern, Congressman Nick Lalota and a bipartisan assortment of elected officials joined at a news conference to urge state and federal leaders to adopt our center’s proposal for a separate MPO for the Island. A new MPO and an MTA control board could dramatically improve our transportation system, while saving us a bundle.
Steve Levy is executive director of the Center for Cost Effective Government, a fiscally conservative think tank. He served as Suffolk County executive, as a state assemblyman and as host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.”