Frasca Attends MTA Meeting

Doreen Frasca, president of financial advisory firm Frasca & Associates LLC, attended her first monthly board meeting of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority as a board member last week.

Frasca is an expert in transportation, with 30 years experience in public finance who was nominated by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer in August and later by Gov. David Paterson. She was confirmed by the state Senate on May 20, replacing Barry Feinstein, who had served on the board since 1989.

Her company has advised the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in developing funding strategies for projects at JFK International Airport, including the Airtrain rail connection and several terminals. Frasca also served on Spitzer’s transportation transition team.

The MTA is dealing with expected capital budget gaps in the future following the nixing of a congestion pricing plan that would have provided a revenue stream for $4.5 billion of bonds by imposing fees on vehicles entering a large portion of Manhattan during certain hours.

Frasca said she was delving into the authority’s finances and would have a lot of questions for the MTA’s finance staff.

“Transit systems are highly leveraged: you can’t get your operating and maintenance and debt costs covered by the fare box and user fees so you have to be resourceful and there typically is a greater reliance on debt,” Frasca said.

She said she had not been given committee assignments yet but expected to be on the finance committee.

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