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Gov. Hochul, top NY lawmakers demand 'fair share' from feds to pay for MTA repairs
By
Jon Campbell
Published Mar 25, 2025
Modified Mar 25, 2025
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By
Jon Campbell
Published Mar 25, 2025
Modified Mar 25, 2025
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislative leaders are asking President Donald Trump to sign off on more federal funding to help pay for crucial repairs to New York City’s mass transit system, even as the president’s transportation secretary threatens cuts to the MTA.
The Democratic governor, along with state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat from the Bronx, and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat from Yonkers, sent a letter Monday to Trump and other top Republicans, urging them to increase the feds’ contribution to the MTA as the state wrestles with how to fill a more-than-$30-billion gap in the transit agency’s construction plan.
In the letter, obtained by Gothamist, Hochul and the state leaders said the MTA deserves additional money because it carries 43% of the nation’s mass transit riders while getting a 17% share of funding through the federal transit formula. They called this a “fundamental misalignment.”
“Mass transit must be federally funded at a level commensurate to its importance to our nation and New York must receive its fair share of that funding to keep up with the needs of New Yorkers who rely on it to get to work, school, and medical appointments,” they wrote.
The feds provided roughly $13 billion for the MTA’s last capital plan, which ran from 2020-2024. In her state budget proposal earlier this year, Hochul requested $14 billion in federal funds for the MTA’s proposed 2025-2029 plan, which has a total price tag of $65 billion and includes upgrades to aging subway electrical systems, repair shops and other infrastructure that’s rapidly crumbling.
Monday’s letter suggests Hochul and New York lawmakers may actually want the federal government to cover billions more of the new construction plan than the governor previously requested.
The letter was addressed to 11 Republican officials, including Trump, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, House Speaker Mike Johnson, U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the seven members of New York’s Republican congressional delegation.
Federal transit money approved in 2021 through former President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is slated to sunset next year. The letter argues the next transportation funding bill approved by Congress should “align New York’s federal formula funding for the MTA with our share of ridership.”
Hochul signed onto the letter as she continues to negotiate with the Trump administration — and Trump directly — over a variety of issues and key MTA funding streams, including the congestion pricing program, the agency’s new toll on drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street that Trump has vowed to kill.
Trump, on the other hand, wants Hochul to support a pair of natural gas pipelines that New York has previously declined to permit.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Staten Island Republican, said the MTA should look at its own operations before Hochul requests more funding.
“I am happy to discuss this with the governor when she turns off those cash-grabbing congestion pricing cameras but the fact remains that no amount of money will help the MTA until she addresses its waste, bloat and utter mismanagement,” Malliotakis said in a statement.
The governor, Heastie and Stewart-Cousins are locked in state budget negotiations where they’re trying to figure out how to pay for the state’s share of the MTA’s new capital plan. When MTA officials announced the plan in September, they said state lawmakers would need to find new revenues to cover at least $33 billion — or more than half — of its total cost, much of which would be borrowed on the bond market.
In private negotiations, Hochul has floated the idea of increasing an existing payroll tax that helps fund the MTA, with the hike only applying to New York City businesses with large payrolls, Gothamist reported last week. But if lawmakers go along with that tax hike, it might not cover the entire funding gap. Heastie has repeatedly said he believes the feds should be on the hook for additional funds before the state increases its share.
Hochul and the legislative leaders sent their letter a week after Duffy sent one to MTA Chairman Janno Lieber, demanding data about crime and public safety in New York City's subway and threatening to withhold federal funding if he doesn’t comply.
Duffy has also ordered the MTA to stop collecting its congestion tolls next month, though the transit agency is fighting that order in court and has vowed to keep the program running.
In New Jersey on Saturday, Duffy accused Hochul of turning the city's subway system into a “s–thole,” and accused her of failing to keep it clean and safe.
“She could fix it in hours, not days, not weeks, and she chooses not to,” Duffy said, according to NJ.com. The subway is policed by the NYPD, and Hochul has deployed National Guard members to help with rider bag checks.
Duffy lambasted Hochul's letter in a post on X Tuesday afternoon, writing the "federal government is not a blank check."
"Instead of addressing rampant crime that’s scaring riders away or actually fixing their financial mismanagement, the state is trying to fill the gap with highway funds and taxing the working class," he wrote. "Before we make any changes to funding decisions, we’d like to see their plan to make the subway reliable, secure, and clean."
Tagged
new york state
Kathy Hochul
new york city
donald trump
economy
Politics
transportation
Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC and Gothamist. Prior to that, he covered the Capitol for more than a decade for the USA TODAY Network. He has twice earned the Walter T. Brown Memorial Award, an honor given annually by the Legislative Correspondents Association alumni for outstanding state government coverage. Jon grew up in the Buffalo area and graduated from the University at Albany. Got a tip? Email Jon at [email protected] or Signal at JonCampbellNY.90.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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