NEW YORK — The transportation bill proposed by the House of Representatives would cut more than $1.7 billion in capital funding for New York City public transit, the International Business Times reported. The bill would remove dedicated transit funds allocated from the federal gas tax and replace them with an as-yet unfunded $40 billion lump sum payment.
The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has a $12.6 billion operating budget and has budgeted about $4.5 billion annually in capital projects until 2014. Joseph Lhota, the new CEO of the MTA, told the International Business Times that over time the bill could force the agency to raise fares to compensate for lost money needed to fund improvements. For the full story, click here.