(The following article by Joshua Robin was posted on Newsday’s website on July 2.)
NEW YORK — The MTA will receive $591 million in counter-terrorism funds now that a Ridgewood assemblywoman who had vetoed the money has reversed herself.
Assemb. Catherine Nolan said she changed her stance after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority provided detailed information on what it plans to do with the federal and state aid, after previously refusing to divulge it.
“Everyone feels that they were properly briefed,” Nolan said Wednesday in an interview. “I feel very comfortable.”
In late May, Nolan, a Democratic member of a four-person panel that doles out capital funds to the MTA, vetoed the plan. Each member of the MTA Capital Program Review Board is entitled to a unilateral veto. The other members are appointed by Gov. George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and State Sen. Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre, all Republicans.
Nolan’s veto led to a two-month delay of new construction on subway and commuter railroad lines that counter-terrorism experts say are critically needed.
Critics charged Nolan was playing politics with safety, but Nolan maintained she was simply overseeing an agency already under fire for withholding information related to its decision to raise the fare.
“I don’t personally think they need all the secrecy,” she said.
Skelos’ spokesman Tom Dunham said Skelos felt “relief” after learning Nolan has signed onto the plan.
“It’s relief from the standpoint that these are things that need to be done,” Dunham said. “They need to be done as soon as possible.”
Katherine Lapp, the MTA’s executive director, said in a statement: “We are grateful for the CPRB’s approval of our critical capital security program. We will continue to work cooperatively with all elected officials and the general public to make the MTA the most responsive and transparent agency in government.”
Nolan said she had no regrets about her decision, although she acknowledged “it’s a serious thing to defer programs.”
“It worked out, and that’s the important thing,” she said.
When the money will be in the MTA’s hands was not immediately clear. The agency needs to issue bonds as part of the process for obtaining the money, officials said.