MTA Board short six as state forgets to renew legislation

Chalk another one up to the ineptitude on display in Albany. The state legislature has forgotten to renew legislation that calls for six non-voting rider and union representatives on the MTA Board. As Pete Donohue reports today, the Board lost these six key members when the legislature expired at the end of 2009, and those in the Senate have shown no signs of renewing it. Those now off the board include NYC Transit Riders Council rep Andrew Albert, an outspoken rider advocate and one of the better transit experts on the board. James Blair (Metro-North riders), Norman Brown (Metro-North union), Ira Greenberg (LIRR riders), Vincent Tessitore, Jr. (United Transportation union) and Ed Watt (TWU) lost their seats as well.

“It really hurts the riders and the workers,” Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said to The Chief-Leader. “Here was a direct pipeline to the big cheeses about what riders and workers were thinking, and that is going to be lost for what I hope will be a very brief period.”

As with most of Albany’s recent transit policies, for the state to allow these key appointments to expire at a time of fiscal crisis for the MTA is simply irresponsible. To make matters worse, four State Senators earlier this year sponsored S4480, a bill to extend the the term until 2012. The bill was committed to the Rules Committee in July and has languished there ever since. It’s just your typical Albany support for the MTA.