Board members of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority called on the state to waive fees on new money bonds, which figure to cost the MTA $22.5 million in calendar 2015.
"That's not an insignificant amount of money," said board member Allen Cappelli.
Finance manager Patrick McCoy, speaking at the finance committee meeting in midtown Manhattan on Monday, said the authority expects to borrow $2 billion in commuter-related projects and $250 million for bridges and tunnels. State fees for new-money borrowing amount to "a little less than 1%," said McCoy.
The state two years ago granted relief from refunding fees.
"To have to continually pay this tax to the state of New York when we are, in fact, a creature of the state, to me is a ludicrous situation," said Cappelli, who represents New York City's Staten Island borough.
The MTA is one of the largest municipal issuers, with $34.4 billion of debt.
Several board members, including finance committee chairman Andrew Saul, said MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast should discuss the fees in the authority's discussions with the capital program review board, which are expected to resume next month.
"It should be part of the conversation and we should talk to Tom about it," Saul said.
The board, consisting of top state officials, rejected the MTA's proposed $32 billion 2015-2019 capital program without prejudice in October.
That plan now has a $15.2 billion funding gap.
The finance committee approved the authority's proposed $14 billion operating budget, upon which the full board is expected to vote Wednesday. The panel tabled a proposal by Cappelli and Long Island board member Mitchell Pally to add $30 million to the budget for service improvements. "It's like Groundhog Day. We have this conversation every year," Cappelli said.
According to Cappelli, the authority could free up the budget by eliminating some redundancies in non-service related departments.
"Service improvements are important, but this is not the way to do it, sprung upon us at a meeting although I do share the ultimate goal," said board member Jonathan Ballan of Westchester County.
The proposed budget includes 4% in fare and toll increases, spread over two years. The board, which held public hearings through the region over the past three weeks, is scheduled to vote on those increases in January.
