Where’s the 2020-2024 MTA Capital Plan?

One of Most Secretive Processes Since Capital Plans Began in 1982

Review of Past Plans Shows 2019 Process is Unlike Any Other Year, Diverges from Transparency Norms

August 2019

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board is slated to vote on the 2020-2024 capital plan on September 25th. Capital plans are approved every five years and are massive documents filled with crucial details that assign tens of billions in spending and are the basic list for MTA priorities. Previous draft capital plans have been made public as early as March. Yet, with only five weeks until the board vote, this capital plan has been kept secret from the MTA Board, legislators and the public. (Notably, an MTA consultant, AlixPartners, revealed they reviewed a draft weeks ago.1)

Adding to the secretiveness, the MTA has also not released a 20-year needs assessment, a report intended to show the MTA Board, Legislature and public how much funding should go to restoring aged and deteriorated infrastructure. The 20-year needs assessment is supposed to inform the capital plan and be released and discussed before the plan is formulated and voted on. Since earlier this year, elected officials and advocates have repeatedly asked the MTA to publish the needs assessment.

Reinvent Albany researched past capital plans and found that in nearly every other capital plan cycle, the public had more information about the MTA capital plan before decisions were made. By historic standards it’s late in the game, but there is still time for the MTA to create some basic transparency around the 2020-2024 capital plan. Reinvent Albany recommends the following documents be released now, with all schedules and projects lists provided in an open data, spreadsheet format: