At the end of the day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s creation of a Transportation Reinvestment Commission to develop a 100-year blue print to plan for the future of public transportation will not be worth the paper any final report is printed on.
It will however like many previous planning studies or commissions, generate him some free publicity along with providing some consultants a nice pay check. In an election year, any career politician including is always looking for some free headlines to keep his name in front of the public.
All Cuomo is doing is kicking the can down the road, to avoid making the difficult decisions today.
Why the need to bring in so many out of town experts to serve on the commission and advice him on what to do down the road? There are plenty of experienced career state and city Department of Transportation along with MTA and MTA operating managers and employees to provide the technical assistance and advise needed.
Ditto for all the former state and city DOT Commissioners along with past MTA and MTA operating agency presidents.
Cuomo need look no further than current planning already under way to see what the future holds.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is in the process of developing the next five-year capital program. It will be reviewed and approved by the state Capital Program Oversight Review Board.
This four-member committee is composed of representatives appointed by the governor, state Senate Majority leader Dean Skelos, state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The MTA has both five year and twenty year long range capital plans, which are periodically updated.
Both documents clearly outline what capital funding is needed to maintain both a state of good repair for existing equipment, facilities and services along with safety and any future system expansion.
Every year, millions of dollars are spent for planning studies to research the potential for new transportation capital investments and system expansion. Gov. Cuomo’s ownstate Department of Transportation, state sponsored Metropolitan Planning Organizations in every major urbanized area including the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, which serves New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority along with each operating agency including New York City Transit, Long Island Rail Road, Metro North Rail Road and MTA Bus, New York City Department of Transportation, New York City Department of City Planning, New York City Economic Development Corporation, Regional Planning Association along with virtually every other city, town, county and authority which runs a transportation system periodically conducts transportation planning feasibility studies.
Collectively, every decade a complete inventory of all these agencies would reveal dozens and dozens of transportation studies perhaps worth $50 million or more in costs have been completed. Funding for these studies comes from a variety of sources including local, city, state and federal.
All Gov. Cuomo has to do is ask someone to take a complete inventory of all these studies. Check out the recommendations, their costs, timetables and identification of potential funding sources for going forward.
The problem is finding the money to make things happen. Federal support for transportation has remained consistent and growing. It has actually increased under virtually every five-year Transportation Authorization Act over past decades.
When a crises occurred, be it 9/11 in 2001 or Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Uncle Sam stepped up to the plate. Additional billions in federal assistance above and beyond yearly formula allocations were provided. In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided billions more for public transportation projects which benefited New York City and New York State along with the MTA and virtually every public transportation provide in the Empire State.
During this same time period, both New York City and New York State consistently decreased hard cash contributions to the MTA by billions under each previous MTA five year capital plan.
On a bipartisan basis, this included past governors Mario Cuomo, George Pataki, Elliot Spitzer and David Patterson.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a token effort of increasing the states contribution to the MTA Capital Program. Billions more are still needed from the state to make up for past cuts over previous decades.
Everyone insisted that the MTA continue financing more and more of the Capital Program by borrowing. As a result, 17% of the annual MTA budget goes for covering the costs of debt service payments. Going back six capital programs or thirty years, by the end of this decade it would not surprise anyone if this continues to grow closer to 20 percent. This means less money is available for operations to provide more frequent service to riders. It also means there is less money just to maintain the state of good repair and safety.
At the end of the day, the cupboard may be bare for any system expansion.
There is no agreed upon long range master financial plan between or within New York State, New Jersey, New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and other transportation operators, for either a timetable or identification of specific funding sources to pay for major transportation system expansion projects. These have been on everyone’s wish list for years if not decades.
Neither Gov. Cuomo or the New York State Thruway Authority has made public how they propose to pay back a major federal loan which financed the majority of $3.9 billion cost for replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge. Just how much more will motorists have to pay in tolls to pick up the tab? Will it double or more over the coming years and decades?
The real final cost of this project could rise who knows how many billions more based on previous estimates if you add either Bus Rapid Transit, Light Rail or Heavy Commuter Rail capacity.
The real issue which Gov. Cuomo is not dealing with is how to find the additional billions of dollars. These funds are necessary to both keep existing transit systems in a state of good repair along with the many potential expansion projects.
Legislation to fund the national Highway Trust fund continues to be deadlocked in Washington.
This vital funding source to cities, states and transportation agencies used to pay for both highway and transit projects is on the verge of running out of money sometime soon. Past presidents and Congress more interested in wining another term in office have repeatedly kicked this can down the road.
The national gasoline tax is used to support the Highway Trust fund was last raised to 18.4 cents in 1993. Taking any action to raise this tax by only pennies per gallon years ago would have resulted in a ample robust Highway Trust fund today.
Will Gov. Cuomo while running for another term be brave and bold in calling for raising the State gasoline tax by a penny or more per gallon?
This act could easily raise the billions necessary for maintaining a state of good repair for highways, bridges and mass transportation along with potential system expansion.
Will Gov. Cuomo put his ego aside in wanting to run up the highest margin of any Democrat running for state wide office? By coming out publicly for an increase in the state gasoline tax, you can be sure he will lose some votes.
At the end of the day, with a 5 to 3 Democrat to Republican or 2 million plus enrollment advantage and $36 million to $2 million campaign kitty versus Republican underdog Westchester County Executive Rob Asterino – it is still a 100 percent safe bet Cuomo will still win. His margin of victory will be cut by being brave enough to come out for a tax increase in an election year.
Will NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio every seriously consider implementing tolls on free bridges and or congestion pricing for those driving to midtown and downtown Manhattan?
This could raise several hundred million per year which could fund transportation projects.
Diogenes is still searching for a brave elected official who will deliver some straight talk to voters.
At the end of the day, money is the milk for strong transportation – be it mass public, highway or bridge. We either pay at the fare box, pump, toll, user fee or tax.
TANSTAFFL, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch or in this case, public transportation, highways or bridges. Someone has to find the money for maintenance, upgrades and expansion. Government does not have a free printing press. Better to pay the piper today before costs go up even more tomorrow.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
