Mayor de Blasio Says Only Federal Stimulus Will Aid MTA’s $1.4 billion debt

By Yehudit Garmaise

     While the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) waits for a potential $12 billion federal bailout to help its budget that has been decimated by the decreased ridership due to the COVID pandemic, the MTA considers many ways to increase its revenue to maintain its current level of service and employment.

     The MTA, which is currently $1.4 billion is debt, is considering cutting weekday subway service in half and eliminating the jobs of more than 9,000 transit workers, which union workers criticize, saying that the agency should look for additional sources of revenue instead of making drastic cuts.

   The MTA board debates whether the agency should raise fares and tolls or lower them, to increase ridership and usage.

    This morning, a BoroPark24 reporter asked Mayor Bill de Blasio what steps he thinks the MTA should take to get out of debt, besides for waiting for federal aid. 

   “I have to say I don’t think anything replaces the federal stimulus,” the mayor said. “Just the sheer cold math of it all. There is no way the state can come up with the kind of money the MTA needs to avoid some of the problems it is facing.” 

   The crisis wrought by the COVID pandemic has created the great need for a federal stimulus, yesterday the mayor said, comparing the impending federal aid to the New Deal that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt facilitated to provide relief, reform, and recovery during the Great Depression in 1929 to 1933.

   “If we don’t have the federal stimulus,” the mayor said, “I fear you will see less MTA service, and that just won’t be good for the city. “But I also appreciate that the MTA has a horrible situation, and I think this is why we should remember: stimulus equals economic recovery: that is why we need it.”

Photo: Marc Hermann / MTA