The idea that the city is withdrawing control of the subways from the state-run MTA is something many aspiring mayors have used to launch their campaigns.
Former mayoral candidates Christine Quinn and Anthony Weiner proposed it in 2013. Candidate Joe Lhota suggested taking over the more lucrative departments of the MTA; the toll on city bridges and tunnels. And when it still seemed possible that city council president Corey Johnson would become mayor, he promised to do so in his 2019 State of the City address.
Most current mayoral candidates have voiced skepticism about the city’s takeover of the metro in the midst of a fiscal crisis – at a January 25 forum, Scott Stringer said it was “not practical” for the city to take on debt service . Andrew Yang, however, is in favor of the lofty but excruciatingly complicated proposal. On the same forum, Yang deviated from the other candidates, arguing that while the numbers “aren’t pretty … it’s hard to get the city back on its feet if you don’t have the largest artery under control.”
“It’s not a bad idea in a vacuum. It’s good that it always indicates that a mayoral candidate is at least interested in the transit system, ”Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told Gothamist. “But it falls a little bit apart when you get into New York’s very complex political economy.”
One point that is quite easy to understand: the metro does not pay for itself. The rates cover about half of the $ 17 billion in annual operating costs. And they don’t even make a dent in the cost of capital. The MTA relies on Albany’s ability to impose various taxes on all New Yorkers to pay the MTA. Everything from the commuter mobility tax, gas tax to the recently passed internet sales tax and townhouse tax.
“You can’t really run the metro system without all these tax resources,” Gelinas said. The only way you could say this [mayoral control of subways] seriously, would be in an effort to reshape the New York City property tax structure and give the subway system a very large percentage of the property tax. “
While the MTA remains a government agency, state legislators from all over New York, many of whom rarely use the subway, retain a lot of control over the system and have an interest in maintaining that control.
Just during this week’s legislative hearing on the MTA’s budget, lawmakers from around the state urged the MTA to use more upstate suppliers for their capital plans. This also applies to major motor vehicle manufacturers such as Bombardier in Plattsburgh, ”Rachael Fauss of good government group Reinvent Albany wrote in a statement. “While municipal control over the metros may be politically attractive, government funding and interest in MTA capital expenditures would be difficult to disentangle and Governor Andrew Cuomo is unlikely to relinquish control entirely given his micromanagement of the agency.”
The MTA declined to comment. Governor Cuomo’s office did not respond to the email for comment, as did Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office.
Speaker Johnson, who is a strong advocate of mass transit, supports the Fair Fares program and prefers mayor control over the subways. He said now is not the time to make large-scale changes to such a complicated system.
“I strongly believe in municipal control of subways and buses. It just makes sense,” Johnson wrote in a statement. But this pandemic has clearly jeopardized the entire future of public transportation, so immediate concern must now fight for federal funding to save the MTA and rapid vaccinations so that we can rebuild drivers and our economy as soon as possible. What we can also do now is continue to improve our streetscape with bus lanes, bus lanes, cycle paths and pedestrian area. My Streets Master Plan will do it. Finally, the most immediate thing is that the metro will open 24/7 again.
The bureau’s chairman, Pat Foye, stressed how much the New York governor controls the MTA and has said repeatedly that the 24-hour subway line will not return until Cuomo declares the pandemic has ended.
One person in NYC who can be held responsible for a system New Yorkers depend on was one of the most compelling arguments that Mayor Bloomberg made for mayoric control of the school system. So why not the metro?
If New York were curious how well it works, we could look to London, where the mayor has controlled the subway, buses and streets for 18 years. That is why they have been charging congestion prices for years and the city of New York is still waiting. As a result, they have more dedicated bus lanes and can carry five times as many passengers on buses every day compared to New York City, according to Charles Komanoff, a transportation economist, professor at Hunter College and staunch advocate of transit.
If instead all that authority rests with the city council and the mayor, I think we could have a different outcome and we could also make transit and transportation and city streets a number one, two or three issue in New York City. , instead of falling to the bottom of the pile like they usually do, ”he said.
On Monday, Yang’s co-campaign manager, Sasha Ahuja, told Gothamist that they are making progress in investigating the subway’s city control. “We can’t wait for Albany to deliver to New Yorkers,” Ahuja said.