Gelinas gave the terse assessment of the MTA’s payroll and the study by the Empire Center that shows some transit workers living higher off the hog than the Transit Authority own president, Andy Byford. Byford’s pay – to run the entire bus and subway operation – is $325,600. Read More
According to a report from the Empire Center, MTA costs increased by 16 percent last year, bringing payroll totals to some $418 million. That is $82 million more than the transit system expects to earn via the current year's round of fare, ticket and toll hikes, the report says. Read More
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s effort to campaign for re-election as a master builder of new infrastructure has been undermined by headlines about New York City’s crumbling subway system. Meanwhile, much less public and political attention is being paid to his management of another major transportation asset: the New York state highway system. Read More
This winter, New York has had two major construction scandals. In March, Related, the giant real estate firm building out much of the Hudson Yards office and apartment site on Manhattan’s West Side, sued construction unions, alleging that they inflated costs by more than $100 million, including fooling Related into paying up to $70 an hour for someone who fetches coffee. Read More
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has promised — loudly, proudly and publicly — that New York state will overspend on public works projects. Read More
“The only way the state could support the capital plan would be to borrow money, and it can’t borrow because it’s too close to its debit limit – but the MTA is not,” said E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
Metro-North overtime was up 10 percent in 2015, according to figures from the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
So, how is Governor Andrew Cuomo paying for that $100 billion infrastructure "development initiative" that, as he put in his State of the State message yesterday, "would make Governor Rockefeller jealous"? The answer: for the most part, he actually isn't. Read More