MTA Finances In 'Dire' State But 500 More Cops Needed : Chairman

NEW YORK CITY — The MTA's finances are in a "dire" position, according to the agency chairman who defended its recent decision to hire 500 new cops in City Council Monday.

CEO Pat Foye faced off against Corey Johnson, who professed himself against the new police hirings, in an oversight hearing on the MTA’s 2020-2024 Capital And Transformation Plan.

"Yes," said Foye, "I do think that our financial position is dire."

"You just said that the MTA's financial position is dire," responded Johnson. "That's frightening."

As Johnson quizzed the MTA head on its $800 million deficit, he quoted a New York Post article that criticized the agency's budgetary tactics as a "naked cash grab" from New York City dwellers' wallets.

The MTA's proposed $17.6 billion budget calls for $700 million in adjustments that include charging city dwellers up to $100 million annually for Access-a-Ride, the Post fumed, and noted city residents already pay 75 percent of the $7.5 billion in taxes and subsidies collected by the agency.

Foye quipped that Albany had tasked the MTA with proving it could reduce its deficit, set at $1 billion in July, before asking for more aid.

"I think they wanted us to prove we could reduce our cost in a responsible way," said Foye. "We've taken that message to heart."

Johnson then demanded to know why, if the MTA was battling a deficit, it would spend $60 million a year to hire 500 cops.

Said Foye, it was principal.

The hirings come in response to an 39 percent uptick in assaults against MTA staff reported by the Transit Workers Union in September, Foye said.

"We have an obligation to provide a safe and secure environment in the subways, on buses, on Metro North and Long Island Railroads." said Foye. "I'm not going to apologize for that."

Foye told Johnson the new cops would fill 80 current vacancies and stand ready to replace an unspecified number of officers who have served more than 20 years and may be about to retire.

Johnson then asked about fare evasion.

"Every day New Yorkers ... see four, five, six, seven officers standing outside the turnstiles watching to see if people are going to evade the fare," Johnson said. "It doesn't seem as if current officers are being deployed in a way to actually deal with assaults."

The MTA's CEO refused to share information about how the officers would be deployed, beyond that they would be stretched across subways, buses, Metro North and the LIRR.

"I'm not going to get into details on it because I think it would be inappropriate to do that in a public setting," said Foye.

"Their deployment will be decisions made by the police leadership at the time and I'm not going to comment."