(Newsday.com posted the following Associated Press article on June 16.)
ALBANY, N.Y. — State Assembly bills proposed Monday would require greater oversight of Metropolitan Transportation Authority spending.
“After all the recent scandals, critical court findings, and hundreds of millions of dollars of cost overruns, it would be a tragedy if the Legislature left home without making the MTA more transparent and accountable,” said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign.
The commuter group sued the agency after the state and city comptrollers found it had engaged in deceptive bookkeeping so it could show a deficit where none existed — allegations the MTA denies.
Common Cause/NY, the New York Public Interest Research Group and Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents MTA workers, also supported the Assembly proposals.
The bills’ principal sponsor, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat, has held hearings into what he called the MTA’s operation as a cash cow and patronage mill for the executive branch under Gov. George Pataki.
At recent Assembly hearings, the attitude of MTA officials was “adversarial and paternal … that they know what’s best and they have very little patience for the public,” said Assemblyman Michael Cohen, a Queens Democrat.
The Legislature’s scheduled session ends Thursday. The Assembly bills have no Senate sponsors yet.
Meanwhile, a plan to protect subway and commuter-railroad riders from terrorist attacks suffered a setback when Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan vetoed the $591 million plan last month, Newsday reported Monday.
Nolan, a member of the MTA’s four-person Capital Program Review Board, is skeptical about the agency’s ability to implement the plan without extra oversight, the paper said.
“You need a check and a balance. They’re just not going to be given a blank check,” Russianoff told Newsday. The board is responsible for distributing government subsidies to the agency. Nolan has unilateral veto power over security money because all votes must be unanimous to pass.
The other board members — representatives of Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the state Senate — favor the plan. The board is likely to revisit the security plan after a review period of 30 days. The earliest the board could take a vote is the end of July.
The MTA said the agency was “disappointed” by Nolan’s veto.
On Friday, Bloomberg recommended Mark Page, director of the city’s Office of Management Budget, and John H. Banks III, former deputy director of the City Council’s finance division, for MTA board membership, saying they would enhance the city’s ability to monitor the agency’s budget practices.