Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters on Thursday that if the subways are going to get fixed, New York City must provide half of the money.

"So you’re saying, if the price tag is $38 billion, you will pay $19 and [Mayor Bill de Blasio] pays $19?" a reporter asked the governor, using a ballpark figure for the 10-year Fast Forward plan released in May by New York City Transit Authority head Andy Byford.

"Yes," the governor said. "My position is, I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to argue. This is political banter which people hate because they’re the ones sitting on the trains."

As if to prove his own point, Cuomo then launched into a political attack on Mayor de Blasio.

"We’ve lost a year because the city wouldn’t pay for the action plan. I had to go to the legislature, literally to override the mayor. We lost a year. 50/50. It’s your legal obligation. Fine, we’ll go 50/50. You can’t be more reasonable than that. And by the way, the state doesn’t have more money than that."

The governor was referring to the Subway Action Plan, the emergency $836 million measure to keep the subways running (albeit poorly) that was unveiled in the summer of 2017, when Cuomo was denying that he even controlled the MTA, despite appointing the majority of its board, its chief, and later, NYC Transit Authority President Andy Byford himself, and claiming that an obscure 1981 law meant that the City was ultimately responsible for funding the City's subways because the City technically owned them.

The summer of 2017's gubernatorial word salad inspired some classic Gothamist headlines:

Cuomo, Who Controls The MTA, After Denying He Controls It And Asking To Control It: 'Who Knows' Who Controls The MTA https://t.co/fwx2FpMXzG pic.twitter.com/kJlo6wAvZP — Gothamist (@Gothamist) June 23, 2017

It's July 2018, and this summer's salad still includes that delicious old 1981 law, plus the claims that the City isn't paying its fair share (nearly 70 percent of the MTA's operating budget comes from taxpayers and businesses in New York City). The new ingredients include the phrase "50/50," and an allusion to some kind of a Queens coin-tossing ritual (emphasis ours).

Governor Cuomo: You guys go around and around and around like the wheel on the train and you have, I think, continually not addressed the issue. The reason that’s important is, if you don’t address the problem you’re not going to solve it. Why is the subway deteriorating? Because we never invested in the subway. That’s the divine wisdom here. You have 40-year-old cars, you have 80-year-old switches. Why didn’t we invest in the subways? Because tax payers don’t want to pay. There’s only two ways to fund the subway repairs. Either the government pays with existing tax dollars or we raise fares. Those are the only two options. Raise the fares or government [inaudible]. By law, New York City is legally obligated to pay the capital expenses for the New York State Transit Authority. By law. By law. Why? Because they own it and it is New York City. Reporter: You operate it. Governor Cuomo: By law, New York City is obligated to pay the capital because they own it. The MTA manages it for them. By law. Right? You look at an apartment. By law, the landlord has to make sure there’s heat and hot water. Well you’re the tenant. I know, but by law the landlord does the heat and hot water. The City, by law, has to pay. Now, well the City doesn’t want to pay, which is where we’ve been for the past few years. Fine. I offered in the Subway Action Plan, 50/50. Reporter: Is that the percentage you’re [inaudible] Governor Cuomo: Old neighborhood. You’re supposed to pay by law? You won’t pay? The subway riders are the ones who are paying the price? I’m a Queens guy. I don’t know what they did in other states. Queens is heads. 50/50. Let’s solve it, let’s stop arguing, 50/50. I said 50/50 to New York City. The City said, no. It’s their legal obligation. I had to go to the legislature to get a law to force the city to pay. Plus, they have the full legal obligation. That’s the law. The state says you pay for [inaudible]. I’m not going to raise fares, so the only option is, the city and the state. Now, long-term I propose congestion pricing. The city is against that also. Well, what is your answer? The law says the city pays, the state offers to do it 50/50 despite the law or go to congestion pricing. That’s the question I’m [inaudible]. Who is going to pay. And that’s been the question for the past 80 years and that’s why you’ve seen the deterioration. I don’t think there’s anything more reasonable than 50/50.

Charles Brecher, a senior advisor at the Citizen's Budget Commission, told Gothamist that "the city and the state are not banks, this is coming out of taxpayers' pockets not out of, quote-un-quote, 'the city' or 'the mayor's' pockets. They have different taxing authorities."

Brecher added, "The MTA is a regional entity, a regional transportation system. And the only taxing system that has regional authority is the state. It's the governor's responsibility to levy the regional taxes, or to create regional congestion pricing, or whatever, to raise the money."

After saying that congestion pricing's "time had come" last year, Governor Cuomo did little to promote an actual congestion pricing plan through the legislature this year, though a fee on for-hire vehicles below 96th Street in Manhattan was passed, and his congestion pricing panel made some recommendations.

In theory, Mayor de Blasio has softened his opposition to congestion pricing from previous years. Now he says he'd be open to a "fair" plan, though he continues to ignore the fair plan right in front of him. And he is still pushing for a millionaire's tax, a proposal that has gained little to no steam in Albany in the years he's pitched it.

"Whether it’s congestion pricing or the millionaires tax, Governor Cuomo is solely responsible for Governor Cuomo not fully supporting and signing into law a sustainable revenue stream to fix the subways the Governor has run into the ground," Eric Phillips, a spokesman for the mayor, told Gothamist.

On Twitter, where tax dollars are burned to create sick burns, Dani Lever, a spokeswoman for Governor Cuomo, fired back:

And @EricFPhillips response to @NYGovCuomo asking @NYCMayor to pay half of subway repair plan: #NBC4NY pic.twitter.com/FDcqB3yMO8 — Andrew Siff (@andrewsiff4NY) July 12, 2018 Well, we already know that the mayor thinks there are "bigger, sharper problems" than the poisoning of NYC's children and fixing the subways that millions of his constituents ride each day and which he is legally responsible for funding. — Dani Lever (@Dani_Lever) July 12, 2018

Both governors and mayors over the years have siphoned millions of dollars from their own budgets that were supposed to go to the MTA to pay for their own pet projects. Their budgets come from you.