NY’s MTA Warns Against Borrowing More Than $13 Billion
- Transit provider seeks to keep debt service at 15% of budget
- MTA board set to approve 2025—2029 capital plan Wednesday
Much of the capital plan will replace aging subway and rail cars and renovate existing structures and assets to improve service on a more than 100-year-old system.
Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/BloombergHow much debt should the nation’s largest mass-transit system take on over the next five years? New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority says $13 billion is just right.
But not everyone agrees. The state’s comptroller calculates the MTA could add on $21 billion of debt through 2029 while an outside fiscal watchdog group says the transit provider should curb its new debt issuance at $2 billion during that time. The MTA, which runs New York City’s transit network, is taking the Goldilocks approach: borrow enough to make needed capital investments, but not so much that yearly debt payments strain the operating budget.