1 1 BEFORE THE NEW YORK STATE SENATE FINANCE AND ASSEMBLY WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEES 2 ---------------------------------------------------- 3 JOINT LEGISLATIVE HEARING 4 In the Matter of the 2018-2019 EXECUTIVE BUDGET 5 ON TRANSPORTATION 6 ---------------------------------------------------- 7 Hearing Room B 8 Legislative Office Building Albany, New York 9 January 25, 2018 10 9:37 a.m. 11 12 PRESIDING: 13 Senator Catharine M. Young Chair, Senate Finance Committee 14 Assemblywoman Helene E. Weinstein 15 Chair, Assembly Ways & Means Committee 16 PRESENT: 17 Senator Liz Krueger Senate Finance Committee (RM) 18 Assemblyman Robert Oaks 19 Assembly Ways & Means Committee (RM) 20 Senator Diane J. Savino Vice Chair, Senate Finance Committee 21 Assemblyman David Gantt 22 Chair, Assembly Committee on Transportation 23 24 2 1 2018-2019 Executive Budget Transportation 2 1-25-18 3 PRESENT: (Continued) 4 Assemblywoman Amy Paulin Chair, Assembly Committee on Corporations, 5 Authorities & Commissions 6 Assemblyman Phil Steck 7 Assemblyman James Skoufis 8 Senator Timothy Kennedy 9 Assemblyman Steven Otis 10 Senator Martin Malave Dilan 11 Assemblywoman Vivian E. Cook 12 Assemblywoman Nily Rozic 13 Assemblyman David G. McDonough 14 Senator Gustavo Rivera 15 Assemblywoman Pamela J. Hunter 16 Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman 17 Senator Leroy Comrie 18 Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis 19 Senator Todd Kaminsky 20 Assemblyman Robert C. Carroll 21 Assemblywoman Earlene Hooper 22 Assemblyman Kevin Byrne 23 Assemblyman John T. McDonald III 24 Assemblywoman Jaime R. Williams 3 1 2018-2019 Executive Budget Transportation 2 1-25-18 3 PRESENT: (Continued) 4 Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon 5 Assemblyman David Buchwald 6 Assemblyman Félix W. Ortiz 7 8 LIST OF SPEAKERS 9 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 10 Joseph J. Lhota 11 Chairman Veronique Hakim 12 Managing Director Robert Foran 13 Chief Financial Officer Donald Spero 14 Deputy CFO Phillip Eng 15 Chief Operating Officer Metropolitan Transportation 16 Authority (MTA) 8 13 17 Paul Karas Acting Commissioner 18 New York State Department of Transportation 247 254 19 Theresa Egan 20 Executive Deputy Commissioner New York State Department 21 of Motor Vehicles 362 366 22 Matthew J. Driscoll Acting Executive Director 23 NYS Thruway Authority 400 405 24 4 1 2018-2019 Executive Budget Transportation 2 1-25-18 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS, Continued 4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 5 Bernhard Meyer Canaan Supt. of Highways 6 President NYS Association of Town 7 Superintendents of Highways -and- 8 Wayne E. Bonesteel Rensselaer Co. Engineer 9 Legislative Cochair NYS County Highway 10 Superintendents Association 440 11 Alec Slatky Policy Analyst 12 AAA New York State 449 456 13 Scott Wigger Executive Director 14 Railroads of New York 468 15 Lee Weitz Deputy Director 16 New York Aviation Management Association 472 17 Robert Puckett 18 President NYS Telecommunications 19 Association 477 482 20 Bill Carpenter CEO, Rochester-Genesee Regional 21 Transportation Authority President, New York Public 22 Transit Association 485 23 24 5 1 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: Good morning. 2 I am Helene Weinstein, chair of the 3 New York State Assembly's Ways and Means 4 Committee, cochair of today's hearing. 5 Today we begin the fourth in a 6 series of hearings conducted by the joint 7 fiscal committees regarding the Governor's 8 proposed budget for fiscal year 2018-2019. 9 The hearings are conducted pursuant to the 10 New York State Constitution and the 11 Legislative Law. 12 Today the Assembly Ways and Means 13 Committee and the Senate Finance Committee 14 will hear testimony concerning the 15 Governor's budget proposal for 16 transportation. 17 I'll now introduce the members of 18 the Assembly who are here, and Senator 19 Young, chair of the Senate Finance 20 Committee, will introduce members from the 21 Senate. In addition, our ranking member of 22 Ways and Means, Bob Oaks, will introduce 23 members from his conference. 24 So we have with us Assemblywoman 6 1 Hunter, Assemblyman Carroll, Assemblywoman 2 Cook, Assemblywoman Rozic, our chair of our 3 Corporations Committee, Assemblywoman 4 Paulin. 5 Mr. Oaks? 6 ASSEMBLYMAN OAKS: Yes, and we're 7 also joined by Assemblywoman Malliotakis. 8 CHAIRWOMAN YOUNG: Good morning, 9 everyone. I'm Senator Catharine Young, and 10 I'm chair of the Senate Standing Committee 11 on Finance. Very pleased to be here today, 12 and I'd like to welcome my colleagues. We 13 have Senator Diane Savino, who is vice 14 chair of the Finance Committee; Senator Liz 15 Krueger, who is ranking member; Senator 16 Marty Dilan, who is ranker on the 17 Transportation Committee; Senator Todd 18 Kaminsky; and Senator Gustavo Rivera. 19 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: Assemblywoman 20 Hyndman is also with us. 21 Before introducing the first 22 witness, I'd like to remind all of the 23 witnesses testifying today to keep your 24 statements within your allotted time limit 7 1 so that everyone can be afforded the 2 opportunity to speak. Witnesses are 3 reminded that the testimony which has been 4 submitted in writing will be made a part of 5 this hearing's official transcript, thus 6 there's no need to read your testimony 7 verbatim. In fact, we would prefer a 8 concise summary of the highlights of the 9 testimony, to allow members' questions to 10 be more focused and productive. 11 And the witnesses are also reminded 12 that their remarks should be limited to the 13 time remaining on the countdown clocks here 14 in the hearing room. It's important so 15 that the witnesses later on have an 16 opportunity to testify also. 17 Likewise, I just want to remind our 18 members to keep an eye on the countdown 19 clocks, and that the time frames are both 20 for questions and answers. So don't try to 21 sneak in a question as the clock goes to 22 zero. 23 Right now we'd like to thank 24 everyone in advance for adhering to these 8 1 guidelines. 2 Cathy, do you have any opening 3 remarks before we call the first witness? 4 CHAIRWOMAN YOUNG: No, I'm looking 5 forward to hearing the testimony. 6 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: So now we 7 will call our first witness. At the table 8 is MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota and -- I have 9 two other people, and maybe you can 10 introduce who's with you perhaps before you 11 start. 12 MTA CHAIRMAN LHOTA: I will, Madam 13 Chair. Thank you. 14 And good morning, Senator Young, 15 Assemblymember Weinstein, and members of 16 the Senate and Assembly who are here this 17 morning. As was mentioned, I'm Joe Lhota, 18 I'm chairman of the Metropolitan 19 Transportation Authority. 20 With me today to my left, your 21 right, is Ronnie Hakim, the managing 22 director of the MTA. To my right, your 23 left, is Bob Foran; he is our chief 24 financial officer. Next to Bob, right next 9 1 to Bob, is Don Spero; he's the deputy chief 2 financial officer. And over on my far left 3 is Phil Eng, who is the chief operating 4 officer of the MTA. 5 First let me say how pleased we are 6 to be here and also how pleased we are that 7 the Governor's proposed budget includes a 8 year-to-year increase in our operating 9 funds. The MTA will receive more than 10 $4.8 billion from all state sources, an 11 increase of $334 million over the fiscal 12 year '18 enacted budget. 13 The Governor has increased state 14 support to the MTA in all eight of his 15 budgets. As a result, annual operating 16 support from New York State to the MTA has 17 increased by $1.1 billion over the past 18 nine years. 19 The Governor's leadership was 20 instrumental in securing the 2015-2019 21 capital program. At nearly $30 billion, it 22 is the single largest investment ever in 23 infrastructure at the MTA. New York 24 State's contribution, $8.6 billion, is many 10 1 times greater than under any other previous 2 capital program. 3 The Executive Budget includes 4 capital and operating support to fully fund 5 the state's half of the $836 million Subway 6 Action Plan. We introduced this plan in 7 July to stabilize and then modernize our 8 subway system, and we're implementing the 9 plan and we're in the first phase. 10 It includes the most aggressive and 11 concentrated preventive maintenance program 12 in the MTA's history. And thanks to all of 13 our transit workers, it is starting to show 14 better results. Last year, major 15 incidents, which delay 50 or more trains, 16 went from 81 in June, when we began to 17 implement the plan, to 50 in December. 18 That's a 38 percent improvement. Comparing 19 this same time frame, major signal 20 incidents went down from 25 to 23, which is 21 an 8 percent improvement, and major track 22 incidents went from 19 to 7, a 63 percent 23 improvement. 24 Although we're seeing signs of 11 1 stabilization on the subway system, the 2 Long Island Railroad, however, I believe is 3 off to a poor start this year -- as I'm 4 sure all of you know, and I'm sure I will 5 get questions about that. And as I've said 6 publicly and I will state here, I'm not 7 happy about it. The status quo there 8 absolutely cannot continue, which is why 9 we're in the process of taking corrective 10 steps at the LIRR.