NEW YORK, NY – Yesterday, the Riders Alliance publicly shamed Governor Cuomo for failing to name his appointees to the state MTA “workgroup.” Nearly three months had passed since the group had been established, but the Governor had not yet appointed a single member. Then today, in a Friday afternoon news dump, an embarrassed Cuomo said he would appoint members promptly.

Cynthia Nixon released the following statement on the Governor’s neglect of the MTA workgroup.

“The Governor is all talk and no action. He puts out a press release saying he’s declaring the subways to be in a ‘state of emergency,’ but then he does nothing. He can’t even appoint members to a workgroup he created. The Governor is legally in charge of the subway, and the way he’s managed the MTA for his first two terms should disqualify him from a third. As governor, I will do what the Governor has failed to: fix our broken subway.”

 

ICYMI: The mystery of the missing MTA ‘workgroup’

By Dana Rubinstein, Politico

Three months after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the state budget, the state has yet to act on a provision requiring New York to establish a working group to examine how best to restore the region’s transit system.

The Assembly has named its appointees, but Cuomo and state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan haven’t. Nor have Mayor Bill de Blasio and his transportation commissioner.

“I’m going away [in August],” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, one of the few named appointees, in an interview. “And I really don’t want it to start without me.”

On Thursday, transportation advocates will seize on the delay in the group’s formation to argue that officials don’t care enough about the still-faltering subway system that undergirds the city’s — and therefore, the state’s — economy.

In particular, they will focus on Cuomo, who effectively controls the MTA.

“While we applaud the interest you’ve shown in our harrowing commutes over the past year, there is an essential step you have not yet taken: appointing members to, and launching, the Metropolitan Transportation Sustainability Advisory Workgroup,” according to a Riders Alliance letter that its signatories plan to hand-deliver to the governor’s midtown office.

The working group with the unwieldy name was supposed to “undertake a review of the actions and measures that are necessary to provide safe, adequate, efficient, and reliable transportation within the city of New York and the metropolitan commuter transportation district,” and to do so by Dec. 31, according to the budget.

Paulin said the budget established the working group at the behest of the Assembly, and that it differs from governor’s late-2017 congestion pricing task force in that it represents more than one stakeholder.

“The problem is going to be that the due date is coming up, and we haven’t started our work yet,” she said.

It’s not unheard of for the state to establish working groups, only for those groups to never meet. In 2015, the state announced a Tappan Zee bridge “Toll Advisory Task Force.” Nearly three years later, the group had yet to convene.

In this case, the task set out for the 10-person group is particularly weighty. The region’s mass transit system is in crisis. Restoring the subway system alone to one befitting a modern city is estimated to cost more than $30 billion. It remains unclear whether, or if, the state (which controls the MTA) and the city (which depends on it) will come through with adequate resources.

“The [MTA] capital plan is so complicated, that there’s so much money at stake, the operating system is breaking down,” said former Assemblyman Jim Brennan, who has paid particularly close attention to the MTA. “There was a general desire to have a better handle on information and analysis about the system.”

Peter Ajemian, a spokesman for the governor, said the appointments would be imminent.

“The Governor single-handedly revived the idea of congestion pricing and successfully pushed the Legislature to pass phase one of the Fix NYC recommendations,” Ajemian said. “Our goal is to ensure as many stakeholders as possible are represented on this board and our appointments will be made in the coming days.”

State Senate spokesman Scott Reif said, “We are actively seeking recommendations that will allow us to make these appointments as quickly as possible.”

According to Tri-State Transportation Campaign Executive Director Nick Sifuentes, the sooner the better.

“If this is a group that’s supposed to solve the subway crisis and congestion pricing, they’re not taking it every seriously,” he said. “And that should be very alarming to everyone who is a rider and cares about this.”

Riders Alliance volunteer Shannon Jordy finds it troubling. A few weeks ago, the Crown Heights resident’s once 45-minute commute to Bryant Park took two hours. A signatory to the group’s letter, she plans to help hand-deliver it to Cuomo’s office on Thursday.

“I know I want this work group formed, I know I want the subway funded,” she said. “And that’s not happening.”

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