NYC Transit Drowning in Debt

Somehow I'm sure that this will be the Republicans fault. Looming fiscal cliff 'will destroy the MTA,' watchdog warns

Trips taken on NYC transit fell off a cliff in response to the pandemic lockdown. And while it has come back some it is only 73% of its previous levels, but the MTA has kept people and salaries in place the whole time. Hey, just because every private business in America has struggled with the pandemic, and staffing, and trying to stay in business, you don't think that should apply to the GOVERNMENT and government unions? You can't be serious. The rules of reality don't apply to them.

A $15 billion cumulative infusion of federal cash over 2020 and 2021 temporarily secured the MTA’s budget — but only until 2024. The MTA’s budget is further hamstrung by over $40 billion in debt, which is pays off in part with money from rider fares, the report said.

“It’s no secret the MTA’s debt loads are unsustainable,” Reinvent Albany analyst Rachael Fauss told The Post. “The federal funding has, in some ways, masked how bad it is.”

So how and why did the MTA develop "unsustainable" debt? Don't know. That is information that you don't need, apparently.

My guess is that even before the pandemic shut everything down, that $40 billion in debt was not sustainable. It would be interesting to see what all was involved in those expenditures. Was the administration building rehabbed? Did the executives get new office furniture? How many people were sent to conferences in how many places? That is an accounting I never expect will see the light of day.

As for how this will all be the Republicans' fault:

“The next two years in Washington are going to be deadlocked,” the source said. “There aren’t going to be operating subsidies with the new Republican House.”

Those eeeevil Republicans just don't appreciate how important transit is.