The idea that the city would take over the management of the metro with the state-run MTA is something that many prospective mayors have used to launch their campaigns.
Former mayoral candidates Christine Quinn and Anthony Weiner proposed it in 2013. Candidate Joe Lhota proposed to take over the more lucrative departments of the MTA; the toll on city bridges and tunnels. And when it still became possible for city council speaker Corey Johnson to run for mayor, he promised to do so in his 2019 state of the nation address.
Most current mayoral candidates have expressed skepticism about the city taking the subway amid a fiscal crisis. Scott Stringer said during a forum on January 25 that it was “not practical” for the city to tackle the debt service. Andrew Yang, however, is a proponent of the sublime yet complex proposal. At the same forum, Yang differed from the other candidates, arguing that although the numbers “are not nice … it’s hard to get the city back on its feet if the biggest artery is not in your control.”
‘In the air, it’s not a bad idea. This is good because 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 apart quite a bit when you get into the very complex political economy of New York.”
A point what is fairly easy to understand: the metro does not pay for itself. Rates cover about half of the $ 17 billion in annual operating expenses. And they do not even make a dive into the cost of capital. The MTA relies on Albany’s ability to levy a variety of taxes on all New Yorkers to pay for the MTA. Everything from the mobility tax for commuters, gas tax, to the recent internet tax and mansion tax.
“You can’t really run the subway system without all these resources,” Gelinas said. ‘The only way to say it [mayoral control of subways] seriously, would have an attempt to reform the structure of property taxes in New York and give the subway system a very large percentage of the property taxes. ”
While the MTA is a state agency, state legislators from across New York, many of whom rarely use the subway, retain a great deal of control over the system and want to maintain control.
‘Just during this week’s hearing on legislation on the MTA’s budget, lawmakers from across the state called on the MTA to use more vendors in the state for their capital plans. That includes big carmakers like Bombardier in Plattsburgh, ‘Rachael Fauss, with the good government group Reinvent Albany, wrote in a statement. “While municipal control of the metros may be politically attractive, government funding and interest in MTA capital expenditure will be difficult to disrupt, and it is unlikely that Governor Andrew Cuomo will relinquish control completely, given his micromanagement of the agency.”
The MTA declined to comment. Governor Cuomo’s office did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the office of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Speaker Johnson, who is a strong supporter of mass transit, support for the Fair Fares program and the mayoral control of the subways, is not the time to put wholesalers into such a complicated system.
‘I strongly believe in municipal control of metros and buses. It just makes sense, ‘Johnson wrote in a statement. ‘But this pandemic has jeopardized the entire future of public transport, so the immediate concern now must be fighting for federal funding to save the MTA and quick vaccinations so that we can back up our management and our economy as quickly as possible. What we can do now, too, is to continually improve our street scene with bus lanes, bus lanes, bike lanes and pedestrian space, and that’s what my Streets Master Plan will do. Finally, the most immediate thing is that the metro must reopen service 24/7. ‘
The agency’s chairman, Pat Foye, has repeatedly said the governor of New York controls the MTA, and has repeatedly said that 24-hour subway service will only return once Cuomo declares that the pandemic is over.
One single point person in NYC who could be held responsible for a system on which New Yorkers depend was one of the most compelling arguments Mayor Bloomberg argued for mayoral control over the school system. So why not the subways?
If New York was curious how well it works, we could look at London, where the mayor has been in control of both the Tube, buses and control of the streets for 18 years now. That’s why they’ve had congestion rates for years, and the city of New York is still waiting. According to Charles Komanoff, a transportation economist, professor at Hunter College, and a strong advocate for transportation, they therefore have more dedicated bus lanes and can carry five times as many passengers a day on buses as in New York.
‘If all the authority rests in the city council and the mayor, I think we can have a different outcome and we can also make sure that transportation and transportation and city streets are a number one, two or three issue in New York, rather than falling on top of the pile, as they usually do, ”he said.
On Monday, Yang’s fellow campaign manager, Sasha Ahuja, told Gothamist that they were continuing their investigation into the city’s city metro investigation. “We can not wait for Albany to deliver for New Yorkers,” Ahuja said.