"They have been driving the train, nobody else," said Andrew Cuomo, who effectively controls the subway system, on Tuesday at the Manhattan side of the RFK Bridge. | Getty Images Cuomo now pins subway problems on the state Legislature

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has found a new villain for his ever-evolving narrative about the sorry state of the subway system: the state Legislature.

"They have been driving the train, nobody else," said Cuomo, who effectively controls the subway system, on Tuesday at the Manhattan side of the RFK Bridge.


Tuesday morning's press conference was supposed to be about the holiday season, and how Cuomo was directing his various police forces to flood New York City's transportation facilities with armed officers.

But after NY1 Albany reporter Zack Fink asked Cuomo about another dispute between state Senate Deputy Democratic Conference Leader (and Cuomo bugbear) Michael Gianaris and Cuomo's MTA chairman, Joe Lhota, the governor took exception.

On Friday, the Democratic conference sent an anodyne-seeming letter to Cuomo, urging him to make MTA funding a priority, even with all of the budgetary headwinds facing Albany. Lhota, to whom the letter was not directed, said Gianaris was "posturing." Gianaris said Lhota should cut back on the vitriol and help secure MTA funding.

On Tuesday Cuomo called his fellow Democrats' argument a "joke."

"The MTA has to be funded! Great. Thank you," he said, his voice laden with sarcasm. "That was a great bolt of wisdom that we needed to know."

"Some politicians in Albany don't want to do anything," he continued, referring to both the Senate and the Assembly. "Why? Political rule number one: He who does nothing, does nothing wrong."

After this article first appeared, a Cuomo official sought to limit the scope of his comments.

"The Governor answered a question specifically about a letter from Senator Gianaris and the Senate Democratic conference and that’s what his response was limited to," the official said.

Cuomo has effectively controlled the MTA for seven years. He has redirected hundreds of millions of dollars from its budget, and, until recently, he steadfastly opposed congestion pricing as a revenue source for the languishing mass transit system.

Recently, he's changed course and embraced "congestion pricing," but declined to define his terms.

"Gov. Cuomo wasn't the first to underinvest in public transit, but he has been in charge for seven years, and in that time the State has systematically deprived the MTA of much-needed funds, helping lead to today's subway crisis," said Riders Alliance executive director John Raskin. "Not only does Governor Cuomo run the MTA; he also dominates the state budget process that could create a new fair and sustainable revenue source to repair our broken transit system."

On Tuesday, Cuomo said his executive budget proposal would include a long-term funding stream for the MTA. And if legislators don't approve it, the MTA would have to raise fares.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's proposal for a millionaires' tax, he said, is "dead on arrival."

"To be clear, many of us have been fighting for more funding in the budget for a long time, and it's the Republican senate that's been keeping us from doing all we can," said Gianaris on Tuesday, referring to Cuomo's role in keeping the Senate in Republican hands.

UPDATE: This article has been updated with additional comment from the Cuomo administration