Gov. Cuomo is “the infrastructure governor,” rebuilding La Guardia Airport and making sure he was the star of the inaugural ride along the Second Avenue subway’s first three stations last year. But when it comes to New York’s most critical infrastructure — the subways — Cuomo hasn’t figured out one rather important part: how to pay for it.
Cuomo has noticed that Gotham’s nearly 6 million daily subway riders have endured months of delays and disruptions. The system “is in dire need of upgrades and repairs,” he said last week.
But the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s long-term budget doesn’t reflect this urgency. Last week, the MTA increased this five-year “capital budget” — which pays for things like the subway cars and station rehabs — from $29.6 billion to $32.5 billion.
The money will go toward some important improvements. The MTA is adding $100 million to speed up a payment system so that people can use tap cards and mobile phones to pay their fares instead of swiping.
And though the MTA hasn’t....
Read the entire piece here at the New York Post
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Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow her on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in New York Post