Governor Andrew Cuomo's plan to flood the subways with 500 new state police officers was officially approved on Wednesday, as part of a $17 billion operating budget passed by the MTA board.
The governor's appointees unanimously backed the highly contentious agreement, which will expand the MTA police force by 64 percent at a cost of $249 million over four years. Three board members, each of them picked to represent the city's interests by Mayor Bill de Blasio, voted against the budget. They cited fears that the stated crackdown on fare evasion and homelessness is not supported by data, and will serve to further criminalize low-income New Yorkers of color.
Sarah Feinberg, a Cuomo-appointed board member who's led the call for more cops, said such concerns were unfounded, since the new officers will be MTA police, rather than NYPD. She added that those who doubted the need for hundreds of new officers would benefit from a "reality check."
"Nearly 2,000 assaults, 2,000 robberies, and nearly 1,000 major sex crimes is not okay," she said, referring to ballpark figures of subway crimes this year.
Her comments were repeatedly interrupted by anti-police protesters, one of whom was ejected from the meeting by security and slammed into a wall.
Contrary to Cuomo's assertion of a "dramatic increase" in subway crime, there is little evidence to suggest that the transit system is becoming more dangerous. Major felonies are down slightly from this time last year. A preliminary report from the Brennan Center, first obtained by Politico, shows that misdemeanor incidents are also on track to reach their lowest level since 2007—findings that are at odds with the MTA's previous claims.
"Because of the complexity of crime data, the MTA has been using statistics somewhat selectively," Rachael Fauss, the senior research analyst at the good government group Reinvent Albany, told Gothamist on Wednesday. "There should be no misunderstanding that this is the governor's priority and directive—he's forcing the MTA to come up with a justification after the fact."
Richard Azzopardi, a senior advisor to the governor, said the notion that the transit board is forced to rationalize Cuomo's executive decisions is "mind numbingly stupid."
"The Governor made a proposal, has discussed it publicly many times and the MTA is considering its implementation," he said, pointing to the same crime statistics cited by Feinberg. "While the advocacy industrial complex seems content to play games with public safety, we're not."
A letter released Tuesday by a trio of New York's congressional representatives, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, implored the governor to reconsider his decision, which they said would have the effect of "punishing the poor."
Likewise, transit advocates have argued emphatically in recent weeks that the $249 million earmarked for cops should be invested in upgrading service. According to the Riders Alliance, midday and weekend service could be increased by roughly 15 percent for the same price of the new patrol officers.
The cash-strapped agency currently faces a $426 million cash deficit by 2023, and transit leaders have repeatedly warned that closing the gap may involve slashing service. The blueprint voted on today will not include "budget-driven service cuts," according to MTA Chairman Pat Foye, though it does not preclude potential future cuts.
In a bid to trim costs, the agency plans to eliminate some 2,700 transit jobs through "position reductions" in the coming years. MTA leaders are also calling on the city to pay half the cost of the Access-A-Ride services, a request that de Blasio has not agreed to and has likened to extortion. The new budget will expand the $600 million per year paratransit program, but caps the number of monthly rides and forces riders to pay for a larger share of the service.
Given the menu of financial challenges facing the MTA—not to mention a ballooning debt crisis—budget watchdogs say that today's vote will come back to haunt the agency.
"This is a seemingly permanent expansion of police that they're proposing, which they cannot afford," said Fauss. "It's going to be at the direct expense of service, if not today, then in the future."
