Gov. Kathy Hochul launched New York's Fiscal Year 2026 budget process by not taking responsibility for the MTA's $33 billion capital plan funding gap. Although she mentioned that the MTA would develop a revised plan, her statement lacked clarity on how to address the funding deficit. Leaders like Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Carl Heastie have expressed a desire for solutions but have not indicated plans to overhaul the existing proposal. This situation highlights the complexities of budget negotiations and the urgency to resolve substantial funding issues in public transportation.
The MTA does need to submit another capital plan for CPRB approval, but the agency can legally simply submit the same plan that was rejected by Heastie and Stewart-Cousins, who had not objected to any specific pieces of the plan, but threw it out entirely because of the $33-billion funding hole.
Hochul began the day by suggesting that the MTA was working on a revised capital plan to replace the one that state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie vetoed at the last possible moment on Christmas Eve.
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