The State Assembly and Senate have released their long-awaited responses to Governor Kathy Hochul’s executive budget, pointedly rejecting her plan to rescue the fiscally-beleaguered Metropolitan Transportation Authority and putting forth their own.
Virtually all the central planks of Hochul’s fiscal lifeboat for the MTA — increasing the payroll mobility tax, shifting the $500 million bill for paratransit and student MetroCards to the city, directing future casino revenue to the authority, and raising fares this year and in 2025 — were cast to the wayside by the State Senate in its one-house budget resolution, after being blasted by virtually every stakeholder except the governor and MTA.
