The MTA Finally Has A New Chairman After Nearly 5 Months

NEW YORK — After nearly five months of temporary leadership, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a new permanent chief as officials push to reform the beleaguered transit agency.

The state Senate confirmed Patrick Foye as the MTA's new chairman early Monday morning amid a flurry of votes on the sweeping state budget deal. The dead-of-night vote came fewer than three days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who effectively controls the MTA, nominated Foye for the job.

"There is no question that we have a great deal of work ahead of us, to bring truly innovative and meaningful reform to the agency and provide the service and system New Yorkers deserve," Foye said in a statement Friday, when Cuomo announced his appointment.

Foye will succeed former chairman Joe Lhota, who resigned in November after just over a year at the helm. Lawmakers approved his appointment along with the nation's first congestion-pricing scheme to raise critical funding for the MTA as part of the $175.5 billion budget deal.

The new gig is a move up the MTA's ladder for Foye, who had served as the agency's president since August 2017 following a roughly six-year stint as executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He was also an MTA Board member from 2010 to 2012.

As chairman, Foye will likely oversee the implementation of congestion pricing, which will toll drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street. Officials say the scheme will raise $15 billion for MTA capital projects such as desperately needed improvements to the subway system.

The budget largely leaves it up to the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority — the MTA's bridges and tunnels arm — to set the congestion tolls and maintain the system, according to Cuomo's office. The agency has some time to get that work done, as congestion pricing cannot be implemented before Dec. 31, 2020.

While Foye praised the governor and the Legislature for making congestion pricing happen, he acknowledged it won't be a cure-all for the MTA's many problems.

"We still have to reduce our costs, increase our efficiency and reform the MTA, and thankfully we’re in the process of making those much needed changes," Foye told reporters Monday.

Cuomo also announced the appointments of four new MTA Board members alongside Foye's nomination on Friday.

The governor — who controls a plurality of the board's seats — named New York Mets executive Haeda B. Mihaltses and former Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton to the MTA's governing body. Suffolk and Westchester counties also recommended business leader Kevin Law and commuter advocate Rhonda Herman to the board, respectively, Cuomo's office said.

The budget deal also included a package of internal reforms for the MTA, one of which aligns board members' terms with those of the authorities who appoint them. That suggests Cuomo's new appointees will finish their stints in 2022, when the governor is set to close out his third term.

"The MTA needs a board that will oversee and manage the transit system so it can best serve its riders, and this critical component of the MTA reform plan will ensure an unmatched level of accountability that New Yorkers deserve," the Democratic governor said in a statement last week.