ALBANY — Republican state lawmakers need the MTA’s head honcho to resign after he dismissed New Yorker’s considerations about subway crime — as questions swirl over the flailing company’s chaotic monetary image.
Eleven state Senators mentioned Wednesday they need Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chair and CEO Janno Lieber to step down. If he gained’t go on his personal, then Gov. Kathy Hochul ought to step in and forcibly take away him.
“Janno Lieber has misplaced the belief of commuters,” Lengthy Island state Senator Steven Rhoads (R-Nassau) mentioned at a information convention within the state Capitol.
“Janno Leber has misplaced the belief of our convention,” Rhoads went on. “On the whole, Lieber has misplaced the belief of New Yorkers and the individuals who stay, work and lift a household right here.”
Lieber has confronted rising scrutiny for the reason that Sunday rollout of an unpopular $9 congestion toll to drive into Midtown Manhattan, as state legislators return to Albany anticipating to debate much more taxes and charges to fund the MTA’s huge capital plan.
Lieber enraged many Large Apple residents with a Monday look on “Bloomberg Surveillance” the place he trumpeted that transit crime was down 12.5% in 2024 in comparison with 5 years earlier, earlier than the COVID-19 shutdown.
The feedback got here regardless of a collection of terrifying subway crimes that had been stunning — and random — in nature, together with an incident the place a sleeping girl was lit on fireplace and burned to demise on a Brooklyn F practice in plain view of terrified commuters.
However Lieber known as the general “stats” constructive.
“A few of these high-profile incidents, you already know, horrible assaults have gotten in individuals’s heads and made the entire system really feel unsafe,” he mentioned.
Regardless of among the different numbers, murders hit a 25-year excessive final 12 months with 10 in 12-months whereas there have been 579 felony assaults, in accordance with NYPD information.
Rhoads mentioned at Wednesday’s information convention that Lieber thinks “we now have a notion drawback.”
“We don’t have a notion drawback,” Rhoads mentioned. “Our commuters don’t have a notion drawback. We have now a deception drawback. A deception drawback on the a part of the governor, a deception drawback on the a part of Janno Lieber.”
State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) mentioned calling for the resignation of somebody was not one thing he nor his colleagues took frivolously.
“We’re asking for one thing that we imagine may be very obligatory for the well-being of the individuals of the state of New York, particularly for many who stay within the MTA area,” Lanza mentioned.“ We imagine that beneath these circumstances it is vitally warranted.”
A number of of these metaphorically calling for Janno’s head cited a New 12 months’s Eve publicity stunt celebrating the implementation of the congestion toll, which is slapped on drivers getting into Manhattan beneath sixtieth Road.
“The tone deaf celebration of the congestion pricing money seize was the nail within the coffin so far as I’m involved and so far as my residents in Rockland are involved as properly,” Hudson Valley state Sen. Invoice Weber mentioned. “Congestion pricing is improper. It must be repealed,”
The opposite senators calling for Lieber’s ouster embody Sens. Mario Mattera (R-Suffolk), Dean Murray (R-Suffolk), Patricia Canzoneri-FItzpatrick (R-Nassau), Jack Martins (R-Nassau), Rob Rolison (R-Dutchess), Alexis Weik (R-Suffolk), Steve Chan (R-Brooklyn) and Anthony Palumbo (R- Suffolk). They’re all within the area of the state served by the MTA.
An MTA spokesperson scoffed at lawmakers’ name.
“Beneath Chair Lieber’s management, the MTA has added service, opened new terminals and supplied report on-time efficiency for his or her constituents on Lengthy Island and the Hudson Valley, whereas delivering essentially the most dependable subway service in a dozen years,” mentioned John McCarthy, MTA Chief, Coverage and Exterior Relations. “However apparently none of that stops out-of-touch politicians from bloviating,”
The state is grappling with the MTA’s proposed $68 billion five-year capital plan. The company accredited the plan final fall regardless that it stays to be seen how $33 billion might be funded.
Meeting Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) was the most recent to acknowledge that Albany will possible have to contemplate elevating taxes or charges to pay for the hole, one thing Hochul’s price range director acknowledged in November.
“I assume elevating income will completely be on the desk,” Heastie informed Spectrum Information’ Susan Arbetter in an interview Tuesday.
However the unpopular governor herself is refusing to confess the identical. On Monday, she mentioned it was as much as the legislature to suggest methods to fill the $33 billion funding hole.
Her workplace has declined to say whether or not she’ll even publicly launch a plan in any respect forward of state price range negotiations the place a deal is probably to be labored out.
Sources inform The Put up that Hochul is contemplating floating a hike to the payroll mobility tax behind the scenes.
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