POLL: Should the MTA Get Money from the State Before LaGuardia Airport?
Yesterday, we learned of Governor Cuomo’s plans for a major, $4 billion overhaul of LaGuardia Airport. The project includes consolidating the four terminals, moving the entire facility south, introducing a 24-hour ferry service, and launching AirTrain service that’ll connect travelers to the 7 line in Willet’s Point. Today, however, the revelry took a turn when it was reported that the revamp would actually take ten years and $10 billion. If this is, in fact, the case, that’s a huge chunk of money coming out of the state budget–money that the MTA has long been gunning for in order to update its antiquated system (it’s been running on the same technology since the 1930s) and to close its $15 billion 2015-2019 Capital Plan funding gap, which is still only less than half of the agency’s $34 billion in total debt.
LaGuardia may be the third-worst airport in the nation, but is it more deserving of billions in state funding than the MTA, which carries a whopping 6.1 million riders a day?
