That’s right! It’s the MTA.
Per Pete Donohue, the cash-strapped agency needs to borrow $600 million to cover its operating expenses for the rest of the year. While Albany passed a rescue package last month before devolving into chaos, the MTA won’t see any of that money until the end of the year, and the transit authority must continue to pay out its expenses. Donohue has more:
The MTA has to borrow a mountain of cash because the state won’t fork over the agency’s transit funds until the end of the year, officials said. Adding insult to injury, the MTA will have to pay the state a fee as high as $5 million when the agency borrows the $600 million needed to pay expenses, officials said…
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority expects to pay $2 million more in interest and other expenses. The Catch-22 stems mostly from the Legislature taking so long to adopt the MTA bailout, which contained a new payroll tax, and subsidies for buses, subways and commuter trains.
That’s brilliant. Stall well beyond a deadline for the rescue plan; pass something that doesn’t really solve any long-term problems; and without the money while charging high interest until the end of the year. Mass transit funding in New York is broken, and this is just another indication of that sad reality.
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