Mayor de Blasio Banking on Subway Outrage to Push His 'Millionaires Tax' Through Albany

As the MTA's crisis continues, New York's leaders are also continuing — to squabble.

Mayor Bill de Blasio continues to say he will not fund half of the MTA's $836 million emergency repair plan. But he said Monday he wants to increase funding for the agency's capital plan by raising the income tax by 0.5 percent for those with incomes over $500,000, or $1 million for couples.

He'll need approval from Albany, but he thinks the growing public pressure on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to fix the MTA will get his plan passed.

"Something has changed in the last few years, particularly in the last few months and it's driving New Yorkers crazy. The subway is not working and that's creating a tremendous amount of pressure on Albany to actually do something different," de Blasio said.

De Blasio's so-called "fair fix" proposal would raise about $500 million dollars a year by 2018 for capital improvements, he told a cheering audience of dozens of DC 37 union members in green shirts. The increased income tax would also generate about $250 million a year to fund half-priced MetroCards for 800,000 New Yorkers living at or below the poverty line. 

De Blasio accused the governor of "siphoning off" MTA funds for other purposes, and said the funds raised through his income tax proposal would have strict safeguards to prevent abuses.

Cuomo has denied that funds meant for the MTA have been diverted elsewhere, and continues to ask the city to fund the emergency plan.

But government watchdog Doug Kellogg with Reclaim New York said sending more money to the MTA won't solve its problems. "For anybody who works in Albany, particularly the governor overseeing this mess, to tell anybody — any tax payer, or even the mayor — that he should be sending more money up to Albany when they've failed in their spending priorities so direly is completely ridiculous," he said.

Kellogg said the ongoing feud between Cuomo and de Blasio, and the failure of the MTA to prevent a further decline, doesn't bode well for the region.

"We may be seeing the total failure of a system of political oversight for the MTA. They're not managing it well and this is turning into political fights and talking points rather than progress for New York taxpayers and mass transit riders," he said.

In a statement, Cuomo said, "There is no doubt that we need a long-term dedicated funding stream. But there is also no doubt that we cannot wait to address the current crisis. Riders suffer every day and delaying repairs for at least a year is neither responsible nor responsive to the immediate problem, or riders' pain."

MTA chief Joe Lhota said the mayor needs to quit stalling and fund the city's half of the repair plan.

"Before we get to modernize the system we've got to stabilize the system, we've got to prevent the delays, more reliability, a lot of work we need to do to get the system back in a state of good repair," Lhota sad.  

In the meantime, Lhota said he's already expanded and begun the MTA's emergency repair plan — though he's said he's not sure how he'll fund the other half if the mayor doesn't pay.