Since October, when a state review panel rejected his agency's proposed five-year capital plan without prejudice, the chief of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has spoken about an ongoing dialogue.
Now Chairman Thomas Prendergast has turned the dialogue to City Hall.
"The MTA and its transit systems are at a crossroads," Prendergast wrote Shorris. "Now, at this critical juncture, is the right time for the city to acknowledge the need for significantly increased investment in the MTA, and in the city's future."
The MTA is one of the largest municipal issuers with nearly $35 billion of debt as of March 31. Its proposed $32 billion capital plan has a $15 billion gap.
Earlier Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city would fully meet the MTA's request of $657 million in capital funds and that he would lobby in Washington next week for better transit funding. Prendergast's letter seeking more funds arrived shortly after the city's executive budget, set for release later this week, was at the printer.
"As the mayor has repeatedly said, we are committed to working with the state and our regional partners to find a long-term plan for this vital state authority," said Amy Spitalnick, a press officer with the Mayor's Office of Management and Budget.
The capital increase in the upcoming executive budget, scheduled for release later this week, consists of $200 million in mandated funding, $425 million in negotiated funding and $32 million in a city match to federal grants.
In recent years, the city's share of the MTA capital plan has been roughly $100 million per year. According to a study by the Independent Budget Office watchdog organization, had the city merely kept pace with inflation since its $136 million annual contribution to the MTA's first plan in 1982-1986, its contribution would bow be $363 million per year, providing $1.8 billion to the capital plan.
"The city should be doing better by the riding public," said Gene Russianoff, an attorney and chief spokesman for the subway ridership lobbying group Straphangers Campaign, which requested
The Capital Program Review Board, which consists of top state officials, rejected the four-year plan without prejudice in October. About $3 billion of the plan is self-funded through bridge and tunnel toll revenue. According to Prendergast, more than half of the remaining $29 billion is allocated for the city's subways alone, and $2 billion for the city's bus system.
Prendergast said the largest portion of the plan, $22 billion, is for state of good repair, or basic maintenance. Much of that, he said, is for New York City transit.
New York State in recent years has been a less reliable source of funding for the MTA. For example, the authority received but $250 million - only 4% --of the state's $6 billion in legal settlements from large banks. In addition, the state has continually raided what had been a lockbox MTA account to balance its own general fund. Last year that amount was $30 million.
The MTA is in store for $750 million from the state's capital plan, which consists of borrowed money.
Predergast cited record-high ridership levels and shifting commuting trends in his letter to Shorris.
"The city's population has grown and its location has shifted, putting pressure on transit in newly developed neighborhoods, in fact, the entire system," he said. According to Prendergast, the Lexington Avenue line along Manhattan's East Side alone carries as many riders as the Boston and Chicago systems combined.
In his OneNYC sustainability plan, which he released last week, de Blasio called for a study on building a north-south subway line along Utica Avenue in Brooklyn.
MoveNY, a coalition of transportation interest groups, has proposed a comprehensive plan to lower some bridge tolls and raise others, impose new tolls on now-free East River bridges across Manhattan and impose a larger surcharge on taxi riders. According to its champion, former city transportation commissioner "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz, the plan would net $1.5 billion in revenue for mass transit.
