MTA borrowing alarms lawmakers

BY JILLIAN ABBOTT

Thursday, March 29, 2007 4:40 PM EDT

Projected deficits and sudden borrowing by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) have elected officials worried, with City Councilmember John C. Liu and State Senator John D. Sabini taking action to improve security and service without fare increases.

At the same time, Councilmember Eric Gioia commended the MTA, under its new leadership of Executive Director Elliot Sander, for implementing a system to help the agency improve the administration of the railroad and subway network.

Liu, Chair of the Council’s Transportation Committee, convened a hearing to hold transportation authorities accountable, questioning, in particular, the settlement of federal capital funding of $495 million for security and $27.6 million for the purchase of new buses.

“It is irresponsible for the federal government to renege on their commitment to protect Americans, including those of us in New York on the front lines in this war against terrorism. The MTA’s unexpected and substantial borrowing also calls into question the adequacy of the Authority’s budgetary planning and its accountability in borrowing such huge sums. Ultimately, the riders will be forced to pay for this through sooner-than-necessary fare increases and that’s wholly unacceptable.”

However, Gioia, referring to the improved accountability method, modeled after CompStat implemented by the New York Police Department in 1994 to detect patterns in crime and allocate resources accordingly, said, “A decade ago, CompStat gave New Yorkers a glimpse of transparency and accountability in government. Now the MTA is moving in the same positive direction.”

Under this system, the MTA will post performance measurements like cleanliness, on-time statistics, and ridership on their website and compile data on these measures to ensure proper allocation of resources by the agency. “New Yorkers deserve a public transportation system that’s clean, safe, and reliable,” said Gioia. “And they should know how the system they rely on every day is measuring up.”

The Transportation Committee also investigated whether, now that the city has transferred all bus operations to the MTA, New Yorkers were losing out on federal money for buses and bus-related facilities.

Greg Kullberg, Director of Capital Programs at the MTA testified that although the MTA didn’t use federal funds to buy buses they weren’t missing out on funding.

Meanwhile, Sabini, the ranking member of the Senate Transportation Committee, said, “Even though ridership is at its highest levels since World War II in New York City, the State’s contributions to the MTA’s budget during the Pataki administration have left the Authority in dire financial straits. Trains and buses cannot run on fares and borrowed money alone. I look forward to working with Governor Spitzer to help the MTA give riders the best value for their money.”