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By Gloria Pazmino

Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration released its wish list for the city's ailing subways on Monday, days before the Metropolitan Transit Authority is expected to release its own plan to address the rapidly declining state of the city's subway infrastructure.

At the direction of Governor Andrew Cuomo, the MTA has been directed to draw up a plan to fix the city's subways, which are suffering from decades of disrepair, lack of maintenance and investment. Ridership hovers around 5.5 million passengers per day, congestion in trains and stations is becoming more prevalent and train delays and derailments have become commonplace in the average New Yorker's commute.

In a call with reporters on Monday, First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris sought to emphasize what de Blasio has been saying for months: The state — and only the state — is responsible for the city's subway system.

Shorris, who does not typically address reporters, also stressed the city has no plans to provide additional funding to the MTA — a request both the governor and MTA Chairman Joe Lhota have been making in recent weeks.

"I think we made pretty clear that the operations of the system are the state's responsibility. We think that they should reallocate and focus their dollars more efficiently to deliver the services they have to deliver to riders," Shorris said.

The city contributes over two thirds of the MTA's $15.7 billion annual operating budget every year. The city also provides what is known as "in-kind" services and capital program support in the form of debt service on city contributions to the MTA's capital plan totaling in about $800 million per year, city officials said Monday.

The outline released by City Hall includes five key points that Shorris said should be covered in the MTA's plan: "Immediate relief" for riders in addition to the many long-term goals already outlined in the MTA's capital plan; public performance goals and standards and the creation of a CompStat-like system to track accountability and improvements per subway line; a reallocation of resources towards "core needs," which Shorris defined as essential fixes; and the return of $450 million of operating funds that were diverted from the MTA to the State General Fund since 2011.

"For that report to be meaningful and credible for New Yorkers, it's got to be a comprehensive and a detailed plan and so we thought we should try and lay out some of the elements such a plan should include," Shorris said. "A real operating plan, not one that focuses on budgetary long term whatever but one that actually talks about how to make the system better now."

Shorris said the administration sent its outline to the MTA on Monday, hoping to influence the process as the deadline for the MTA to release its plan approaches at the end of this month. The timing of the administration's release of its wish list — ahead of the MTA's plan — also sought to draw a line in the sand against the city contributing additional money for repairs.

Over the weekend, during a much-publicized subway ride on the F train, Mayor de Blasio suggested the MTA is not spending all the money at their disposal — including billions under the agency's control and $2.5 billion given by the city for capital improvements.

Shorris echoed the same point on Monday, acknowledging that the city does serve as a key supporter of finance for the agency while stressing that the tax dollars the city directs to it have not been returned to the city in the form of service upkeep.

"We need to make sure that the dollars that city taxpayers put into the system are used efficiently and effectively," Shorris said. "In fact, we find that a fair amount of the dollars that the city has put in or made available to the capital program of the MTA haven't even been drawn down yet — not only for this plan but even prior plans."

According to the independent Citizen's Budget Commission, the MTA has $46 billion in unspent capital funds, including $17 billion from prior capital plans. The $46 billion includes $13 billion that is committed but not spent plus $33 billion in uncommitted funds.

City Hall data provided on Monday said the MTA has only completed 730 out of 1,346 of the total projects — 54 percent — included in the previous 2010-2014 Capital Program.

Instead, Shorris said, the agency has been placing its focus on improvements and projects not essential to city residents. Although Shorris did not mention Governor Cuomo by name, he suggested a recent bridge lighting project, a Cuomo idea, needed to be reevaluated.

"I think riders across the city and certainly us would say, hey if there is 200 or 300 million dollars available for an MTA-related expense, we'd really like to see that go to improving the maintenance of the system and the quality that the service riders get — that's probably the most extreme examples. I'm sure there are others," Shorris said referencing the bridge lighting project.

A spokesperson for Cuomo did not return a request for comment.

In a statement released hours after Shorris' call, MTA chairman Joe Lhota accused the de Blasio administration of wanting to score "cheap political points," suggesting City Hall had waited until the last minute to submit their plan suggestions.

"The mayor and his team are fully aware that the MTA is set to present its 30-day overhaul plan this week and have had every opportunity to convey their suggestions," Lhota said. "Instead the mayor has continually taken the position that the New York City subway system is not his problem. What we need right now is for leaders to step up and work together, not hastily thrown together press releases drafted to score cheap political points — New Yorkers deserve better."

Asked about when City Hall had sent its wish list to the MTA, Shorris said it had sent it on Monday morning shortly before sharing it with reporters; he dismissed the possibility that the suggestions would reach the agency too late in the process of drafting their plan.

"We are having the discussion with the MTA about a number of these issues I don't think they will find any of them particularly foreign," Shorris said. "They have a week or more to get their report done so they have a chunk of time left, I'm sure they're thinking hard about it."