Morale among the MTA’s more than 50,000 employees is sputtering in the wake of an indefinite pause on congestion pricing, and the blow to staff could be financial as well without a replacement for the lost toll revenue.
MTA staff could lose up to $3.2 billion in wages as a result of the loss of the $15 billion congestion pricing was expected to generate for the authority, according to analysis from watchdog Reinvent Albany. The group is far from alone in its concerns for the authority and has joined a new coalition made up of an unsually diverse mix of business groups, transit advocates and good government groups who are joining forces to explore possible legal challenges to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s eleventh-hour halt of the tolling program.
City Comptroller Brad Lander’s office has worked to assemble several organizations as part of the coalition, including the Partnership for New York City, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Riders Alliance, among others. The group planned to detail possible legal strategies at a Wednesday news conference in Lower Manhattan.
Each year, the MTA spends up to $7 billion on capital projects, 21% of which goes to in-house staff on work such as track repairs and station upgrades. But on Monday, in the wake of the pause on congestion pricing, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said the authority must drastically shrink its investments into the region’s transit and prioritize work that is “most important to maintaining the safety of the system.”
Transit officials have no choice but to pare down the authority’s current capital plan without the funds congestion pricing was expected to generate to enhance the system — roughly $3.2 billion of which Reinvent Albany says was earmarked for work performed by in-house staff. MTA workforce and riders stand to bear the immediate brunt of that revenue loss, said Rachael Fauss, a senior policy adviser at Reinvent Albany.
“A scaled-back capital plan means less jobs and less pay for the MTA workers who do the important work,” Fauss said in an interview. “The concern is that this creates a spiral, that it all can feed into itself in terms of making the system less attractive.”
MTA spokesman Michael Cortez declined to comment. But authority employees told Crain’s that they are bracing for potential hits to the workforce.
“It feels like we’re on the edge of a cliff and are being asked to swan dive into shark-infested waters,” said one midlevel employee who is not authorized to speak publicly. “People are incredibly frustrated and worried about what’s to come.”
The MTA tends to cover 10% of its annual labor costs by borrowing funds from its capital plan and pumping those dollars into its operating budget, which covers daily operations and routine maintenance. In 2023, reimbursements from the capital plan funded $1.3 billion of the MTA’s $11.8 billion in labor expenses, according to MTA data.
Now, the MTA’s operating budget is also facing a squeeze because without the $1 billion in expected annual toll revenue, the MTA will need to pay back its capital borrowing from its operating budget much earlier than transit officials had expected. All the financial reshuffling could boil down to cuts to labor spending, according to Lieber.
“There are a lot of MTA employees who are paid in large part, or in part, out of the capital program,” Lieber emphasized to reporters during a Monday news conference. “So we have to figure out how the operating budget is going to be impacted as we adjust the capital program.”
Caroline Spivack , 2024-06-12 19:16:30
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