WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JULY 30, 2020 13
MTA fiscal tsunami requires federal relief
BY PATRICK J. FOYE
With the Senate back in
Washington working on
another COVID-19 relief
package, we at the MTA are fending
off a fiscal tsunami. We’re simply
trying to survive the rest of this year,
and the next one, with our finances
mostly intact. But to do that, we need
help and we need it now – in the form
of another $4 billion in federal aid to
get through 2020.
Without additional federal relief,
we will be forced to slash and burn,
including possible reductions in
force and service, as we navigate
the most severe financial crisis the
MTA has ever faced. Everything is
on the table: fare and toll increases,
deficit financing and even delaying
our historic Capital Program.
OP-ED
We are not crying wolf. The fiscal
tsunami that is now crashing down
on the MTA is very real, and should
concern all New Yorkers. Our organization
is losing about $200 million
a week in revenues, from losses in
fares, tolls, subsidies and COVIDrelated
expenses. To put that in
perspective, we spend approximately
$300 million a week just to operate
the MTA. All told, we’re facing a projected,
aggregate $16 billion deficit
through 2024.
We’ve been doing our part to
balance the books on our own —
implementing a hiring freeze and
identifying more than $1.1 billion in
budget savings in 2021 and $5.13 billion
in savings overall through 2024.
Those figures include $340 million
in newly identified annual recurring
savings, from reductions in overtime,
consultant contracts and other nonpersonnel
expense reductions. This
is on top of $2.8 billion that we had already
trimmed from the budget over
the past few years, pre-pandemic.
But even with emergency federal
aid and these expense reduction efforts,
we will need to do more. There’s
no question that we will be forced to
make cuts; the only question is how
extreme. Only Congress can answer
that.
Our precarious fiscal situation
should raise alarms across the country.
The New York metropolitan region
accounts for nearly 10 percent of
the national GDP, meaning there is no
full economic recovery without a robust
MTA. Additionally, businesses
throughout New York and the nation
benefit from contracts with North
America’s largest transportation
system.
This is not a partisan issue.
Business leaders, labor leaders and
elected officials from all parties have
recognized the gravity of the MTA’s
financial challenges and called on
Congress to step up. Senator Schumer
and the New York Congressional delegation
support MTA funding.
On Friday, July 24, we exhausted
the $4 billion allocated to the MTA
in March under the CARES Act. We
can’t let the progress we’ve made
in recent years go down the drain,
plunging the MTA into the service
failures and delays New Yorkers
were subject to in the bad old days of
the 1970s and early 1980s.
We need our national representatives
to act urgently and responsibly
— time is running short.
Patrick Foye is the chairman and
CEO of the New York Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (MTA).
SNAPS
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