Hot on the heels of yesterday’s dismaying news concerning the GOP-lead State Senate budget resolution that withdrew state support of the MTA capital fund, authority Chairman and CEO Joe Lhota struck back. In a pointedly-worded letter to Dean Skelos, the New York State Senate Majority Leader, Lhota urged the Senate Republicans to reverse course and questioned their commitment to both transit and growing jobs in New York State.

Noting that the request to increase the MTA’s bonding limit as well as a direct grant from the State were included in the Governor’s budget and the Assembly’s plan, Lhota bemoaned the Senate resolution. “These items, along with approval of the MTA’s proposed amendment to the 2010-2014 Capital Program, are essential to allow us to continue to make the important transportation investments that the twelve counties of the Metropolitan Transportation New York Region desperately need.”

In the letter, Lhota, a former Giuliani confidante, hit back at the GOP over their claims of job creation. Transit, he said, is what spurs job growth. It helps ferry New Yorkers to their jobs, and by purchasing services and supplies from New York businesses, it keeps the upstate economy afloat and growing as well. “Over 80% of commuters into the NY central business district during peak hours use the MTA systems, and MTA’s 2012 capital program alone will account for over 20% of New York City construction jobs,” he wrote. “Furthermore, the Capital Program’s continued purchase of rail cars, buses and other equipment provides significant economic benefit to New Yorkers far beyond the New York Metropolitan region.”

Behind this game of Russian roulette Skelos is playing with the MTA’s capital budget, the Senate GOP is also putting billions in federal loans at risk as well. The MTA is currently negotiating with the feds for a $3 billion loan that will push East Side Access and Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway to completion. The loan is contingent on a fully funded capital plan, and New York, says Lhota, must show “an equal commitment to maintaining the transit network’s new and existing infrastructure.”

That commitment is currently absent. “If the Senate’s budget resolution were enacted,” he wrote, “it would clearly call into question the State’s commitment to its transit system and will jeopardize the loan and our ability to complete East Side Access and the current phase of the Second Avenue Subway as well.” Of course, decades of divestment by the state and outright theft of supposedly dedicated transit dollars should have called into question that commitment long ago, but Lhota has to play politics here as well.

In its coverage of this looming fiasco, Streetsblog noted how GOP Senators in Albany will hold transit hostage in exchange for road dollars, and that is exactly what I noted last night. Upstate representatives claim the MTA does nothing for their districts when, in fact, these capital dollars support manufacturing in upstate towns. And so we will wait. We’ll wait for the horse-trading and the political machinations.

As I said last night, though, New York City and New York State cannot afford this game. If the Republicans dig on on spurious claims of being unaware of what the capital money will go toward, if they do not budget, the MTA could lose out on billions of dollars that are designed to help expand our transit network. That is a fate we should not and do not want to contemplate.

The New York State budgeting process is, by all accounts, a very, very messy one, and it’s even worse when the Senate is controlled by one party and the Assembly and Governorship controlled by the other. This year, with GOP lawmakers pushing for spending cuts and the MTA seeking money for its ongoing capital work, the debate over downstate dollars may turn sour. Yesterday, the New York State Senate, controlled by Republicans, voted to cut all capital subsidies for the MTA.

“The Senate budget resolution is right in line with our priorities to cut taxes, control spending and create jobs,” Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said. “I am confident that we will be able to work with the Governor and Assembly to get a new budget enacted well before the deadline that includes our priorities.”

The move, as first reported by Celeste Katz and Glenn Bain for The Daily News’ Daily Politics site, came as part of the one-chamber budget resolution. In this document [pdf], Senate Republicans voiced how they would vote on the various measures associated with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget plan. The Assembly conducts a similar vote, and the two resultant documents are used during the budget negotiation process.

Here, the MTA came out as big losers. The State Senate voted against a Cuomo proposal to appropriate $770 million to the MTA for capital projects, and they voted against a plan to increase the MTA’s bond cap by $7 billion. As The News noted, State Democrats were livid:

Not only did Senate Republicans cut $770 million in capital financing for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, they also rejected the agency’s bid for a $7 billion increase in its bonding cap — which according to Democratic Sen. Martin Dilan (D-Brooklyn) would jeopardize the MTA’s ability to qualify for more than $2 billion in federal financing.

“It will bring the East Side Access project to a complete halt, Second Avenue subway to a complete halt,” said Dilan, who is the ranking Democrat on the Transportation Committee.

Dilan also warned that the loss of funding would jeopardize the MTA’s ability to purchase new subway cars from upstate factories. “It is very irresponsible,” Dilan said. “They are putting the lives of individuals who are employed throughout the State of New York.”

Republicans, especially those of the upstate variety, claim they are seeking out information on “what specific capital projects would be funded,” but one revealed his true colors. John DeFrancisco, the Budget Committee chair from Syracuse, worried about funding levels for upstate bridges and roads. “We don’t have too many MTA trains going to Syracuse,” he said.

This is, of course, a mess. Upstaters who live off the spoils of New York City’s state-powering economy have long refused to support transit. They want money for upstate roads that do not do nearly as much for the state’s economy as the MTA does, and now they’re playing a very dangerous game with much-needed MTA funding. The authority has to secure these dollars to continue work on the Second Ave. Subway and East Side Access. To say that state lawmakers do not know what capital projects are being considered is a load of bunk.

It is easy for us in the city to shake our fists as folks like DeFrancisco and wonder why someone from Syracuse, for instance, has such an overwhelming say in what New York City needs. We are, after all, both the carrot and stick for a state that would otherwise be in dire financial straits without us. Yet, it’s worth remembering that this is just one step in the process. Cuomo seems to understand, at least begrudgingly, that the MTA needs these dollars, and Sheldon Silver, for his faults, will fight tooth and nail for it.

Right now, State Republicans in the Senate can say they voted against MTA spending before it becomes a fixture in the budget. They’ll engage in some good old fashioned horse-trading, and the money will be there. But make no mistake about it: Upstate Senators from both sides of the aisle aren’t going out of their way to do the city and its transportation network any favors, and within the five boroughs, that should be a great cause for concern.

Were the food ban to pass, this man would not be permitted to eat in the subway. (Photo by flickr user phogel)

Senator Bill Perkins does not, like most New Yorkers, like rats all that much. He doesn’t want to be reminded that millions of them coexist with the human residents in this fine city of ours, and he particularly doesn’t want to see them at his subway stop, on his subway platform, in the tracks or perhaps even in the train. I can’t say I blame him too much.

The truth about rats in New York City — and it’s one we don’t like to admit — is that they are drawn to human waste. They feast on our garbage, and as long as we supply them with garbage, they’ll eat and be merry. The subways provide them with ample garbage. Harried New Yorkers are always eating, and although most straphangers make use of the trash receptacles, as the MTA has dubbed them, even if just a few bad eggs throw their food scraps onto the tracks or station floors, the rats will find a way to them.

And so Bill Perkins wants to head off that behavior by cutting off the source of food. There shall be, he has proposed, no eating in the subway. His bill has cleared the State Senate’s Transportation Committee, although 9 of the 16 yea votes came with reservations, and now it sits with the Finance Committee. Perhaps it will pass, and the challenge will fall to the enforcers. Perhaps it shall die a death in Albany.

Yesterday, while on a trip to speak out in support of transit funding, MTA CEO and Chairman offered up his views on the proposed food ban, and it is not on his transit wishlist. “I do not support the bill,” Lhota said to The Times. “It severely hurts and impacts minority communities. I don’t want to deny the kid the only time that day he’s going to get food.”

The new Chairman says that too many people, from workers to students, need their commute time to grab a quick bite and that the ban would be a burden. Lhota, however, is familiar with Perkins’ work as the two have tried to combat New York’s rat problem for years. The MTA head though didn’t offer up praise for the Senator. “The idea that we worked together in the past goes far beyond the reality. As a legislator, he does nothing but talk and talk and talk, and he does nothing,” he said.

Perkins countered with a different take. He claimed Lhota once offered up support for the food ban and believes his bill to be the key to controlling rats underground. That is a bold claim indeed. “If that’s his position, I’m sorry to hear that,” Perkins said of Lhota. “I think there is a great need for us to control eating in the subways to get control of the rodent infestation. We’re still trying to convince him.”

There is, of course, another way to look at this issue. As Cap’n Transit noted to me via Twitter last night, perhaps this issue is being improperly framed. The problem isn’t that people can eat underground; rather, the problem is that no one is there to clean up the garbage. Trash bags sit in stations for days, and rats find their ways to neglected sources of food. The Cap’n believes rehiring cleaners could make stations tidier while providing jobs for the unemployed. If Albany were to focus on such a solution, it could create a better win-win-win.

Meanwhile, I’m torn. Eating on the subway is not the most sanitary of things to do, and folks who chow down on complex meals are often disrespectful toward their fellow commuters and themselves. That people think the subway floor is an appropriate place for discarded chicken bones or unwanted french fries simply makes it worse. And so, dear readers, I shall leave the question up to you.

Update (2:30 p.m.): Facing criticism from other state officials for his comments, Lhota, noted during his time in the Guiliania Administration for his temper, issued a formal apology to Perkins this afternoon. “I would like to apologize to Senator Perkins for my comments in The Times today,” he said. “Bill is an excellent legislator with great constituent services, and I share his commitment to addressing the problem of rat proliferation in New York City. Though we agree on many rat related issues, we disagree on banning food on the subways. I have a great deal of respect for Senator Perkins.”

As I’ve delved into the politics of the MTA and New York City’s love-hate relationship with the subway system, I’ve often believed that transit riders are an untapped political constituency. Most New Yorkers can’t be bothered to learn the intricacies of the MTA’s bureaucratic structure or understand who in our city or state government has proper oversight over the authority. New Yorkers blame the MTA for its institutional, political or economic failings whether it deserves to bear the full brunt of the blame or not.

Part of the problem is one of numbers. The Straphangers Campaign is basically three people with limited money, and Transportation Alternatives doesn’t focus exclusively on transit. There’s just one subway rider advocate on the MTA Board, and somehow these organizations are supposed to represent the interests of five million commuters who just want to get home quickly, maybe have a seat and not pay more for less service.

The other problem is one of message. It’s hard to craft a tale that is both compelling and informative. Take, for instance, the recent Trans Alt survey that found riders unhappier with their commutes in 2011 than they were two years ago. That’s a very negative message, and while Transportation Alternatives leaders stressed Albany’s role in our declining service offerings, the headlines splashed across the front of the city’s newspapers concerned only the unhappiness and not the cause. We can talk, but nothing will change if no one is listening.

The third problem perhaps is one of scope. In a piece for City Room that highlights just how riders are left out of important MTA decisions, Clyde Haberman last week spoke with rider advocates. What should riders want, he asked. The answers:

Too bad that whenever the [union] negotiations resume, an important party will not be at the table. This would be the group of New Yorkers who are supposed to be the bosses of both other parties. We’re referring, of course, to those who ride the subways and buses. Oh, sure, the other sides will say they have nothing but the riders’ interests at heart, and maybe there is some truth to that. But, as ever, a passengers’ representative will not be present…

To fill the vacuum, we turned to a couple of people who have a good sense of what’s on the minds of many commuters. All we asked is that they skip demands like lower (or at least stagnant) fares and improved (or at least not worsened) service. Who doesn’t want those things? But fares are bound to rise, and more frequent trains and buses do not seem in our immediate future. “People are concerned about the cleanliness of stations — that’s a big thing,” said William A. Henderson, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, a branch of the transportation authority that is a voice for riders. There is “at least a perception” that stations have become dirtier, Mr. Henderson said.

Also, he said, riders want to see workers put back into vacant agent booths. “With the closing of the booths, people do remark on how lonely it is,” he said. “If something happens, you don’t know if anybody will be there to see it or do anything about it.” Those empty booths also troubled Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign, a riders’ advocacy group.

Russianoff also spoke of quickening the pace of activation of the countdown clocks as well as streamlining the MetroCard bonus system. Haberman himself called for an end to the alarms on the oft-abused emergency exits and a tidier system for the free newspapers that often flood station entrances. These are little quality-of-life upgrades that could improve the experience of riding in the morning.

Still, I can’t help but think that these are small and incremental ideas. Facing with a recalcitrant Albany, few people with prominent platforms are calling for a reprioritization of how we spend transportation dollars and allocate street space in New York City. Few are highlighting which representatives have repeatedly voted to withdraw money for transit funding that has led to fare hikes and service cuts. No one is calling for massive infrastructure investment on such a scale that would expand subway service as city planners once envisioned with the IND Second System.

Ultimately, we need a mixture of big and little. We need proposals to fix the funding mechanisms, ensure sounder oversight and improve the riding experience. Right now, though, who’s listening? New Yorkers are content to hate the MTA, hate their commutes and vote, over and over again, for the politicians responsible for this mess. It’s a never-ending cycle.