New York MTA Seeks New Funding Sources

With ridership plateauing at roughly 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels, New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will meet with lawmakers and labor leaders to discuss potential new sources of funding for the agency, which, in the past, depended on ridership revenue for half of its operating costs. If current levels of farebox and toll revenue hold steady, MTA faces a $2.6 billion budget shortfall in 2025, reports Michelle Kaske in Bloomberg CityLab.

According to a quote from Rachael Fauss of Reinvent Albany, “The best case is that they get new, ongoing, dedicated state aid. Not sort of a one-shot thing because the problem of reduced ridership isn’t going away anytime soon.”

Potential options for new funding sources include new sales taxes, a common funding method in other cities such as Los Angeles, where sales taxes make up 80 percent of operational funding. Revenue will also come from the MTA’s planned congestion pricing system, which will launch in late 2023 or 2024. 

As Kaske notes, “If the agency doesn’t find new funding it would be forced to reduce service and boost fares higher than already planned. That means commuters would have to pay more to ride and wait longer for trains that break down more often.” MTA board member Andrew Albert rejects the idea, saying “I don’t think cutting service gets us anywhere.” Albert continues, “It then means fewer riders will opt for the system, which means you begin that downward spiral of death -- fewer riders means the deficit grows even more.”