New York Seeks More Federal Transit Funds; Transportation Secretary Pushes Back

New York state leaders on Monday asked the federal government to significantly increase funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), saying that the nation’s busiest transit system is vital to the U.S. economy. In a joint letter on March 24, Gov. Kathy Hochul, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, all Democrats, appealed to federal officials, including President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, and Republican leaders in both houses of Congress. The New York leaders asked that federal funding levels align with the MTA’s 43 percent share of the nation’s mass transit ridership....