MTA may still make cuts despite the federal bailout

MTA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Foye. Credit: AP/Mark Lennihan
Daily Point
MTA has more money, same problems
Two weeks ago, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced it would be cutting service further on the Long Island Rail Road. Such cuts, the authority said, would take effect March 8.
In the meantime, Congress came to a deal on a COVID-19 relief package that included $6.5 billion for the MTA. That’s on top of $8 billion the MTA received last year.
That should have been cause for celebration and a moment of unity for the MTA and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who helped push the MTA money through.
But come Monday morning, the LIRR service changes went into effect. And then, photos popped up on social media of crowded commuter trains.
It was a perfect storm of bad timing, and Schumer wasn’t pleased.
"I have 14.5 billion reasons why LIRR service cuts make no sense right now," Schumer said while on Long Island Monday. "The MTA needs to go back and look at their decision here knowing billions of more federal relief dollars are, quite literally, in transit."
A Schumer spokesman told The Point: "We have not fought and fought and fought for service cuts to be the byproduct."
The spokesman said that once President Joe Biden signs the relief legislation into law this week, the money would be available to the MTA quickly.
MTA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Pat Foye told The Point that the authority is "incredibly grateful" to Schumer and the New York congressional delegation for the funding – but he noted that the billions in relief prevented further "drastic" service cuts, not the right-sizing the Authority already had planned in response to continued low ridership on the LIRR.
"We still have huge deficits which will be affected by many things, including how rapidly and when ridership returns," Foye said. "We still have to be financially vigilant going forward despite this unprecedented amount of federal funding."
Nonethless, Foye said LIRR head Phil Eng was working Monday afternoon to tweak the service changes and add trains where needed in time for the afternoon rush, to prevent the crowding that occurred Monday morning. The morning crowds, Foye said, were limited to a "small number" of trains, mostly between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m.
Customers, he noted, can use an MTA app to not only see the crowding on a given train, but even to determine which cars are more crowded than others.
And Foye said LIRR riders shouldn’t expect further cuts in the near future.
"The next adjustments to service on the LIRR and MetroNorth are going to be increases," Foye told The Point.
—Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall
Talking Point
Petitioning in the time of COVID-19
An unusual petitioning period started last Tuesday, affected like so much else these last months by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation in January reducing the number of signatures needed to get on the ballot for the June 22 primary, and also shrinking the time to collect. It’s down to 30% of the usual number of petitions on Long Island, in deference to the potential danger of having candidates and supporters going door to door in a pandemic.
A lot of the focus on petitions this cycle was on New York City, featuring crowded mayoral and other races, but there’s lots of petitioning for Nassau and Suffolk county races as well, for Nassau county executive, comptroller, county clerk and legislative races, plus Suffolk district attorney, sheriff, and more.
"So far it’s going smoothly from what I’m hearing," Nassau Democratic elections commissioner Jim Scheuerman told The Point, adding that some people are refusing to open doors due to COVID-19, "which we expected."
Some candidates including NYC public advocate Jumaane Williams wanted even deeper changes to the petitioning process given the pandemic.
Charles Berman, North Hempstead Town receiver of taxes who is on the petition for judicial delegate, signed a letter along with other candidates and officials back in January urging state leaders to temporarily change petition requirements. Last week, he told The Point it’s a whole new experience.
"I’m only going to get signatures for the petitions by networking with friends and neighbors," he said in an email last week. "I will call ahead and ask for a convenient time to stop by to get signatures outside. No cold-calling this year!"
He said he was happy that the number of signatures needed was reduced, at least.
Suffolk GOP elections commissioner Nick LaLota said the reduction was a "fair balance between reducing the human contact" but still only getting "legitimate candidates onto the ballot."
Petitions have to be handed in by March 25, so there’s time for more hiccups, but also the usual challenges. Suffolk Republican leader Jesse Garcia said door-knocking this year included masking and hand sanitizer and some wary residents, but also some who invited committee members inside. But then there’s the big perennial issue faced in petitioning and door-to-door canvassing: the Ring doorbell system — because residents can see who’s knocking, or "use the microphone/speaker system to decline," Garcia said in a text.
—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano
Pencil Point
Not so bad

Credit: Cagle Cartoons/Dave Granlund
For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/cartoons
Quick Points
- Critics said President Joe Biden betrayed his years of experience and abandoned his promise to work with Congress in a bipartisan way in getting the COVID-19 relief bill passed. Actually, he channeled deeply his years of experience by realizing Republicans weren’t seriously interested in working in a bipartisan way.
- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo says some lawmakers’ calls for his resignation are politically motivated. And his refusal is not?
- State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins called on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to resign, saying there is a need "to govern without daily distraction." If having no daily distractions is truly necessary to govern, nothing would ever get done.
- An outside group that supports Republicans is putting up ads in 11 congressional districts controlled by House Democrats, labeling the COVID-19 relief bill "Nancy Pelosi’s liberal stimulus." When people are getting help they need from the government, they tend not to identify it as liberal or conservative but simply as the answer to their prayers.
- Former President Donald Trump issued cease-and-desist orders to the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senate Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee to stop using his name and likeness in fundraising emails and on merchandise, but so far they have not complied. So now they decide to ignore him?
- President Joe Biden will deliver a prime-time address on Thursday marking the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic – and the beginning of Biden’s COVID relief bill victory tour.
- West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin remains opposed to ending the filibuster but wants to make exercising it more "painful" by forcing the person filibustering to actually deliver a filibuster on the Senate floor, as once was done, and see how long they last. It’s a new twist in the war of attrition.
—Michael Dobie @mwdobie