Without billions of dollars in immediate federal assistance, the future of New York City’s transit system looks incredibly bleak. At the monthly MTA board meeting on Wednesday, MTA President Pat Foye said the agency was facing a “once in 100 years fiscal tsunami” created by the pandemic. The low number of passengers and the shortage of tax revenue means that the MTA is losing $ 200 million every week.
While Foye said the MTA recently identified $ 340 million cuts to its wear and consulting contracts budget, the transit agency says it needs $ 3.9 billion to provide acceptable levels of service for the rest of 2020, and another $ 6.1 billion in 2021, also as “billions” more in the years to come.
Foye repeatedly refused to say what kind of service reductions passengers could expect without the right amount of federal aid, and instead repeated the phrase “everything is on the table.” If Congress refused to act, the MTA would have to issue bonds this fall, and the agency’s capital budget would be affected accordingly, which would mean more broken machinery and delays that would lead to fewer passengers, leading to the MTA to what a transit expert has described as a “downward spiral”.
“Our immediate focus is on Washington,” said Foye. There, Republicans and Democrats seem to be arguing about how big the stimulus should be. The United States Senate is in session until the first week of August.
The number of bus and subway passengers this week is 1,230,999 passengers, a decrease of more than 77 percent compared to this time in 2019. Motor vehicle traffic through bridges and tunnels has increased faster than the agency predicted, but not enough to have a significant impact on revenue.
In addition to the fiscal crisis, the MTA workforce has paid a staggering price during the pandemic: 131 of its workers have died from COVID-19, and 4,098 have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Foye said it was “cynical” that the Trump administration was delaying approval of the congestion pricing plan, which was supposed to raise $ 15 billion to help rebuild and modernize the system starting in 2021, but noted that there was little to be done. could do.
During the meeting, several board members suggested that the agency should push for a gasoline tax, or some other form of state revenue if the federal government does not provide the necessary amount. Foye rejected that idea at a press conference, saying the public couldn’t pay any new taxes.
When asked if the MTA would institute service cuts and rate increases before pressing for another form of revenue, for example, a multi-million dollar tax, and Foye responded with the common phrase, “Everything is on the table.”
Foye also did not say whether the MTA would cancel its plan to hire 500 new police officers if it did not receive enough federal aid. He noted that 168 officers have been hired, and that a hiring freeze has prevented the rest, but did not comment further on the future of the plan.
