Andrew Cuomo — who infamously paraded around his control over the MTA while governor — proposed City Hall take over the reins of the transit authority as he tries to revive an independent bid for mayor following his embarrassing primary loss.
“I know the MTA very well. It’s a behemoth. It’s bureaucracy on top of bureaucracy,” Cuomo said Wednesday on Fox 5’s Good Day NY.
“I would propose that New York City take over management of the New York City Transit Authority. …Let the mayor manage the New York City Transit Authority.”
The campaign proposal quickly drew snickers and eye-rolls from transit advocates and election rivals who called out the disgraced ex-gov’s transit controversies while at the agency’s helm.
Cuomo’s notable moves steering the MTA include driving out beloved transit chief Andy Byford, using $5 million of the cash-strapped agency’s funds to bail out upstate ski resorts, spending more than $100 million on decorative lights and tiles on bridges and in tunnels, and the notorious “summer of hell” transit service in 2017.
“Andrew Cuomo had a decade as governor — and complete control over the MTA — to make changes. If he believed in letting New York City take over the Transit Authority, he could have done it then. But instead, he played politics with our transit system, centralized power in Albany, and micromanaged from afar while subway service suffered and riders paid the price,” said Mayor Eric Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent.
“Now, years after he walked away, he suddenly has ideas? It’s a little late for that. …Cuomo’s comments are nothing more than political theater from someone who had his chance and failed to deliver.”
Cuomo’s oversight of the MTA as governor makes him a bad pitchman for giving City Hall control of the subways and buses, said John Kaehny, director of the watchdog group Reinvent Albany that monitors transit service.
His handling of the MTA was “endless drama,” Kaehny added.
Cuomo spent more than $100 million on vanity projects to erect decorative lights on the MTA bridges and tens of millions of dollars more to retile two city tunnels — the Brooklyn Battery and Queens Midtown — in the state’s blue-and-gold color scheme, instead of using the dough for desperately needed subway repairs, he said.
He also approved the controversial law to impose congestion pricing on vehicles entering the Manhattan business district to help fund the MTA’s capital plan and got construction of the decades-delayed Second Avenue subway line completed.
Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa quipped that “I’m reliving the summer of hell” when asked about Cuomo’s transit takeover plan.
“Cuomo had his chance and he ruined the subway system,” Sliwa said. “Running transit is not what a mayor does. He wants to be governor.”
One government watchdog said Cuomo, who is now running on the independent “Fight and Deliver” ballot line, looked “desperate.”
“He’s really desperate to throw ideas out there and see what sticks,” said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank.
Cuomo’s pitch comes after Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani grabbed attention during the primary by proposing fare-free bus service that would be financed by $9 billion in higher taxes on millionaires and corporations. The recommended tax hikes would require Albany’s blessing.
“He’s looking for a simple idea to counter Mamdani’s free bus proposal. This is not it,” Gelinas said.
Splitting up the MTA would be a complicated issue. Nearly $9 billion in taxes are imposed on businesses by the governor and legislature to fund mass transit and the regional agency — that also includes the Long Island Railroad and Metro-North commuter rail lines — has nearly $50 billion in debt.
“It’s a silly proposal. It will never happen,” Kaehny added.
Such a transfer of power would also require approval in Albany, from the legislature and Cuomo’s successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Hochul said she’s not addressing the “hypothetical” proposal.
“Governor Hochul is not commenting on hypothetical campaign proposals, she is focused on delivering for the millions of riders who rely on the MTA every day,” a Hochul spokesperson said.
It’s not a new idea.
In 2019, former City Council Speaker Corey Johnson proposed breaking up the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority and transferring city trains and buses to a mayoral-run agency called “Big Apple Transit” — or BAT.
During the Democratic primary campaign, Cuomo proposed increasing subway and expanding outreach by social service workers and providing alternatives to homeless individuals removed from the transit system.
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