Heastie warns state may need to raise taxes to fund MTA

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the federal government’s adversarial stance toward New York is creating the need for a new approach to funding the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Normally, the state would backfill the funds for the plan, but he says meddling from the Trump administration means they need to have a funding mechanism securely in place before following through on a capital plan. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Heastie sent a letter to the federal government asking for an increase in federal funding amid tension over congestion pricing and subway crime, Gothamist recently reported. Heastie told reporters on Tuesday that it was unfair that New York receives just 17% of the nation’s mass transit funding when the state is home to 43% of the country's mass transit. Beyond that, he said, he was tired of the general dynamic between the state and Washington, D.C. 

“I didn't have a President Biden micromanaging the MTA,” he said. “No, we didn't have pretty much Trump One micromanaging the MTA. We didn't have a President Obama micromanaging the MTA. So all you want to do is talk about how you're gonna cut funding. You don't like congestion pricing. You can't just stop things and then just stick us with a bill. And they always talk about (how) they don't want us to raise taxes. Fine. You don't want us to have to come up with revenue raisers to fund the MTA, then do better by us.”

A method to raise the $68.4 billion needed for the MTA’s 2025–2029 Capital Plan still hasn’t been determined, although the MTA has been assured that one will be found as budget negotiations progress. A key source of revenue would likely be an increased payroll mobility tax in New York City. 

Heastie said he wasn’t holding his breath on the federal government lessening its pressure, let alone increasing its transit funding for New York. “I expect nothing, and maybe they'll surprise me, but we'll have to figure out something,” he said. “We've just been talking about a menu of things. I haven't discussed all of the options with the members yet, but I'm fully confident that we'll figure out a way to fund the MTA.”

Hochul and Democrats in the state Legislature have tried to place the blame for the budget uncertainty on House Republicans, whom they claim haven’t properly advocated for the state in Congress.

For their part, Republican leaders in the statehouse are confident that the state’s Republican congressional delegation is speaking to the White House daily and will be able to successfully win additional funding for New York in the federal budget.

“I think it's important that Congress, specifically our representatives, whether it's you know, someone like Nick Langworthy, Claudia Tenney, Nicole Malliotakis, whoever it is, they should be a part of that discussion,” state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt said. “And that's what I relayed to them.”