With the subway and commuter rail system in crisis, Cuomo has yet to name a new chairman to lead the MTA. | AP Photo As problems persist, fixing subways not on Albany's final agenda

ALBANY — Service disruptions on New York City’s subways have escalated from a frequent annoyance to what advocates have deemed a crisis.

But with two weeks left before state lawmakers — who oversee the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state entity that controls the trains — break for the summer, solutions are not on anyone’s agenda.


There are no plans to hold hearings. There are no pending bills. And after approving a state budget that provided some funding to support to the authority’s roughly $30 billion capital plan, there are no plans to send more resources — or even clarify whether more money is needed.

“I mean, we know it’s a problem but I’m not sure in the next two weeks we’ll be getting all the answers on what the problems are,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat from the Bronx, told POLITICO. “But I hope this is not how we’re going to spend our summer — dealing with problems at the MTA.”

“I don’t know,” said Sen. Simcha Felder, a Democrat from Brooklyn who caucuses with its ruling Republicans. “I don’t know.”

While Gov. Andrew Cuomo controls the MTA and the state Legislature is supposed to provide oversight, Albany has been notably missing in action as riders have endured one disastrous commute after another — even in the face of more regular prodding by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and others.

With the subway and commuter rail system in crisis, Cuomo has yet to name a new chairman to lead the MTA, which controls both systems and has been officially leaderless since January.

He has sought to distance himself from the state authority he controls, while in the same breath arguing that he put an "unprecedented" amount of funding into the authority's five-year capital plan. But he has yet to identify where that money is coming from, and that "unprecedented" amount of funding is actually the smallest, or second smallest, state contribution to the MTA since 2000 when adjusted for inflation, depending on how you crunch the numbers, according to the non-partisan Citizens Budget Commission.

Faced with growing public pressure to answer for the MTA's deficiencies, Cuomo recently launched a $3 million competition for "geniuses" to come up with how to fix the system. The results are pending.

John Raskin, executive director of a straphanger advocacy group called the Rider’s Alliance, said the onus is on Cuomo. Legislators, he said, should react after he moves.

“The state Legislature serves a dual function of providing both funding and oversight,” he said. “I think the vital role that the Legislature can play at this time is oversight — there’s no path to a solution that doesn’t start with Governor Cuomo putting forth a vision for how to fix the subways, and laying out his plan for how we get to where we are now to an acceptable quality of service.”

There are no hearings currently planned, legislative spokesmen confirmed, but Democrats who control the Assembly recently had a forum focused on planned summer repairs to Penn Station and the ripple effects they could have throughout the metropolitan area’s transportation system.

Heastie deferred to Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, a Democrat from the Bronx who chairs the chamber’s committee on corporations, which is the traditional perch for M.T.A. oversight.

Dinowitz issued a press release last week calling for a “transit revolution” that would start by restoring $65 million in operating support that Cuomo’s team re-assigned during the budget process. M.T.A. officials have said it was not a cut, because the overall level of state operating support increased this year because of an uptick in variable revenue streams.

“It’s shocking that we would cut funding to the M.T.A.,” Dinowitz said. “We have to work to find ways to increase funding and also do other innovative things.”

He and other legislators noted that the state’s annual budget was settled in April, and that Cuomo has typically vetoed bills that expend state funds if they are passed outside of the $153 billion spending plan.

“Legislative responses that require us to put money forward are usually done in the budget process, so we couldn’t do one right now,” said Sen. Diane Savino, a Staten Islander and a member of the GOP-allied Independent Democratic Conference. “I do think the Legislature as a whole needs to take a long look at what we’re doing for downstate transit.”

Still, lawmakers in the next fortnight are planning to approve a multi-million-dollar aid package for people and businesses along Lake Ontario that have suffered flood damage due to record water levels.

“Money can be spent post-budget. We can still reinstate that $65 million,” Dinowitz said.

Sen. Mike Gianaris, a Democrat from Queens, agreed there should be “shock funding” and faulted his Republican counterparts for approving bills that would increase the number of entities exempted from a payroll tax on downstate businesses that funds the M.T.A.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, one of seven Republican senators from Long Island, said GOP senators were pushing to lower taxes and help create jobs. The spokesman, Scott Reif, said that Republicans have been vocal about the problems at Penn Station and their effects on Long Island Rail Road commuters. The Senate passed a bill allowing the LIRR to withhold the rent it pays Amtrak to use Penn Station as a bludgeon to force service improvements.

So far, there is no legislation that would give the M.T.A. more money, or force it to do anything to improve subway service.

“I have not put in a bill,” Dinowitz said. “We have advocated for [the $65 million], let’s put it that way. I could put a bill in, but I’d like to see the governor do something, but maybe we will do a bill. … A lot can happen in two weeks.”