NEW YORK — While a provision for the hiring of police officers led to a split vote, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board passed its $17 billion budget for 2020 on Wednesday. The budget sets no service cuts, a reduction of 2,700 jobs by the consolidation of agency back offices, and a 2% wage increase over the next four years for members of Transport Workers Union Local 100.
The budget provides for hiring an additional 500 officers for the subways, Metro-North, Long Island Rail Road, and MTA bus lines. The new officers will combat growing homelessness, fare evasion, crime, and employee assaults. Fare evasion is now costing the MTA $300 million a year by its own estimates.
That provision led the three board members nominated by New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio to vote against the budget, while the nine board members nominated by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo voted in favor. The three members voting no echoed activists and watchdog groups, who felt that the new officers would would unfairly target minorities. During the board meeting, seven people were ejected for shouting protests about the new police hires. Five were cited with summonses for disorderly conduct, MTA spokesperson Tim Minton said.
“There’s just too much history of abuse here for me to let it pass,” board member David Jones said of the minority community’s sensitivity to past police incidents.
MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick Foye, asked after the meeting if the new officers would make the subways and buses safer for riders and workers, said, “The short answer is yes, absolutely.”
Before the meeting, MTA released findings of an audit by independent accounting firm Crowe LLP on the capital program planning process. The audit had been mandated by Governor Cuomo and the NY State Legislature this year. The audit found the MTA capital planning process to be “consistent with industry-leading practices” and required no modifications to the upcoming 2020-2024 Capital Plan. [See “MTA authorizes $515 billion for a new five-year capital program,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 25, 2019.]
