The MTA was supposed to get $14.5 billion in COVID-19 relief funds through three packages passed by Congress between March 2020 and March 2021 — but a technicality could send a big chunk of change to New Jersey and Connecticut instead.
The last two relief bills, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act passed in December and the American Rescue Plan passed in March, allocate roughly $14.2 billion for transportation systems in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said repeatedly those packages would bring about $10.5 billion to the MTA, adding to the $4 billion the agency got through the March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
(Right to left) Janno Lieber, president of the MTA Construction and Development, Demetrius Crichlow, acting senior vice president for the MTA New York City Transit Department of Subways, and Yoichiro Araki, president of Kawasaki Rail Car Inc., unveil a new R211 car. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
In recent months, however, Senators from New Jersey and Connecticut have accused New York of slicing too big a piece of the federal funding pie, forcing the Empire State into negotiations that could cut the amount of aid the MTA ultimately receives. MTA officials said the neighboring states support a distribution that would chop $730 million from New York’s share.
The big-bucks appropriation given to transportation agencies in the tri-state region through the last two bills was the product of a shift in the way the feds distribute transit funding.
Before the pandemic, transit agencies got federal funds almost exclusively for construction and maintenance, and the MTA would get about 16% of federal funds earmarked for mass transit each year — despite carrying roughly 40% of the nation’s transit riders.
But in the final two COVID relief packages, transit funds were distributed to regions based on operating costs: MTA’s exceeds $17.5 billion a year, more than six times NJ Transit’s $2.6 billion annual operating budget.
New York leaders want the $14.2 billion allocated for tri-state transportation agencies to also be distributed by operating costs; New Jersey and Connecticut officials are pressing for a split determined by the pre-pandemic formula.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) (Michael M Santiago/GettyImages/Getty Images)
The distribution will be decided by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, a majority of which consists of New York representatives. But MTA officials said the money split would be hashed out in negotiations between the states’ leaders.
“Because the MTA’s operating budget accounts for a much larger share of the region’s overall transit operations than its typical slice of federal funding, the primary effect of this adjustment should be to increase the MTA’s share of pending federal COVID relief funding,” the letter states.
TransitCenter spokesman Ben Fried questioned why Schumer hasn’t done more to get more.
“At NYMTC, the New York delegation has the numbers among the voting members, but it’s kind of a black box to us,” said Fried. “We do know that the New Jersey and Connecticut senators have been very vocal on this subject and Sen. Schumer has not.”
The East Side Access project is pictured under Grand Central Station in the Thursday, May 27, 2021 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News)
Fried said if New Jersey and Connecticut officials get their way, it would actually cost the MTA $900 billion.
“Our staff has been in regular contact with the MTA, along with New Jersey, and is fighting for our fair share according to costs incurred,” Roefaro said.
Roefaro asserted the three bills “allocated $14.5 billion to the MTA and that’s where the dollars should go because that’s where the need is strongest for workers and straphangers.”
MTA spokesman Ken Lovett said the relief packages were designed to divvy up funds how the MTA supports.
“This FEMA-type emergency funding was explicitly designated by Congress to address transit needs created by the COVID-19 crisis — especially to offset the need for layoffs, furloughs and service cuts for transit systems most impacted by the pandemic,” said Lovett. “Based on Congress’ clear intent and the language of the statute, this crucial funding should be distributed based on need, not congressional formulas used in regular times to support new capital projects.”