Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential victory is key to bailing out the cash-strapped MTA following the death of congestion pricing in New York City, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday.
Jeffries, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats in DC, wouldn’t say whether the feds would continue giving billions of dollars to the beleaguered MTA — instead saying that that’s “one of the reasons why who wins in November will be so important.
“We need Vice President Harris to succeed,” Jeffries told reporters at an event with MTA Chairman Janno Lieber in Brooklyn, where ground was broken on a project to add elevators to the Classon Avenue G train station.
“If she succeeds, New York City succeeds, and the MTA will succeed.”
Jeffries — who stands in line to become the next House speaker should Democrats regain control in the upcoming election — also called Gov. Hochul’s 11th-hour cancelation of congestion pricing the “reasonable thing to do at this moment.”
“I supported a temporary pause of a limited duration, while at the same period of time redoubling our efforts at the federal level to make sure that we’re securing the resources to undergo the type of transformational projects such as the one that’s taking place here,” he said.
Democrats’ success in taking the White House, Senate and House in 2020 was also a win for the MTA, bringing home billions in additional dollars for the massively indebted transit agency.
The feds originally were chipping in $7.5 billion towards the MTA’s 2020-2024 capital plan, but raised that contribution to around $10.5 billion as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021. That’s on top of another $2.5 billion matching funds for the Second Avenue subway expansion.
Jeffries and other lawmakers in Washington will have to reassess how much cash gets sent to localities when the feds’ current five-year plan expires in 2026.
The MTA is currently in the process of preparing its own five-year capital spending plan for 2025-2029. The program could run as much as $70 to $80 billion over five years, some fiscal experts predict.
On top of that, the agency needs to find an additional $15-16 billion to replace the hole in the current capital plan Hochul blew open when she canceled the widely unpopular congestion pricing toll earlier this year.
Hochul said last week that she’s punting the massive fiscal challenge to be part of next year’s state budget talks.
“New Yorkers need the maximum participation of Governor Hochul, the legislature and Washington leaders like Rep. Jeffries to deliver and safeguard the reliable and accessible public transit network we deserve,” Danny Pearlstein, Policy and Communications Director for the pro-congestion pricing Riders Alliance told The Post in a statement.
