Every five years the Metropolitan Transportation Authority comes up with a vast plan to finance New York's systems of trains, buses and bridges. In this report, the MTA proposed $32 billion as the needed money to keep up this system. However, this budget includes a $15 billion dollar cash gap that caused a lot of discussion among the authority's board meeting. Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed Thomas F. Prendergast as the chairman of the board. Cuomo himself has expressed his support to bring the Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven line into Pennsylvania Station and to build four new stations on the line in the Bronx, a plan which is included in the $32 billion dollar budget. However, with Cuomo running for reelection, he decided not to make any drastic changes and would be more open to new approaches if he became reelected. Dani Lever, a spokeswoman for Cuomo, declined to speak on how he would address the budget gap. But it seems like he supports the advancements of New York's infrastructure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/nyregion/in-mta-capital-budget-a-reappearing-cash-gap.html
I believe that Cuomo's support for the enhancement of MTA can definitely increase his chances on becoming re-elected but on the other hand people can view this as a negative thing. His endorsement of the new plans can simply lead to dissatisfaction of New Yorkers. Many people are upset about the conditions of current subway train stations and instead of fixing and improving those, he wants to make new stations. Just a few months ago, the F line had derailed because of many temporary tracks in place of damaged ones. I believe that improvement should be priority before expansion.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting how Governor Cuomo is only interested with plans to expand the MTA if he gets re-elected. Plans to better help the state and city shouldn't be pushed back becuase the Governor wants to be re-elected. This call to do more in the next term has been seen with politcians everywhere, including the president.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hila. It sort of feels like cliff hanger in a book. In order to find out what happens left, in order to actually get something done you need to reelect Cuomo. You'd think that he would want to improve things soon so people remember that at the polls.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hila. It sort of feels like cliff hanger in a book. In order to find out what happens left, in order to actually get something done you need to reelect Cuomo. You'd think that he would want to improve things soon so people remember that at the polls.
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