The NY state legislature adjourned today without the state’s MTA Capital Program Review Board acting to approve the transit umbrella organization’s 2005-2009 capital program.  While the legislature’s adjournment does not preclude action by the board this summer, it may make it more difficult to convene its members.  The review board is a four-party panel made up of representatives of the governor, NYC mayor, state senate and state assembly.

Though a late MTA capital program is nothing new, failure to reach agreement in early summer could bode ill for the slice of transportation construction funding slated to be put before voters as an issuance of state debt this November. Without an approved capital program, lawmakers cannot assign specific projects to this bond act, and without a project list, it will be harder to pitch the measure to voters. If the bond act fails at the polls, it will mean $2.9 billion for the MTA and NY State DOT will have to be shaved from the agencies’ already under-funded five year construction programs.

News items over the past weeks have mentioned a number of issues that may be holding up the final agreement in Albany:

Inclusion of the #7 subway extension in the MTA program.  Though New York City funds would be used to build the project, some media outlets report that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has the same point of view on this project that he had of the West Side stadium plan — that it will cause development competition between the Far West Side and Lower Manhattan.

The ugly campaign to kill the Long Island Rail Road Main Line/3rd Track project launched by several local officials in western Nassau County (see next page) is apparently supported by some of Nassau’s delegation in the State Senate. 

The elimination of 12 NYC subway station renovation projects from the MTA’s original capital program has generated a campaign by rider advocates and local legislators to re-fund them.

Inclusion of the project to link the LIRR to Lower Manhattan in the bond act project list has apparently been an issue.  Some parties seem to want the MTA as far on the hook for the project as possible, while others fear tainting it with a possible rejection by voters. 

Some press outlets have reported that legislators are considering adding to the capital program — specifically increasing funds available for the Second Avenue subway and the LIRR link to Grand Central — with a form of borrowing known as “Garvee bonds.”  The state would borrow against future federal transportation aid.  It’s unclear why this would be any different than simply having the MTA issue more of its own bonds — in either case, it will add to the huge debt load the transit system already carries.  New Jersey used the technique to postpone its transportation reckoning until after this fall’s election, but it will only require greater fiscal heroics later to pay off all the loans and sustain a functioning transportation system at the same time.  However, other sources say the Albany powers are unlikely to add to the MTA debt load at this point.

Is it possible that other creative solutions are afloat?  Last weekend, in a NY Times opinion piece, the Straphangers Campaign’s Gene Russianoff urged that available September 11 recovery funds should be applied to the Second Avenue subway project — “a subway line that carries people from Harlem and the East Side to work downtown.” Russianoff cited funds that are left over from the cancelled West Street tunnel project, the city’s budget surplus and precedents, like Westway, where congressional action was able to re-channel dedicated federal transportation aid.

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