Meera Joshi’s five-year tenure as the head of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission coincided with a tumultuous time for the industry she was tasked with overseeing and regulating. Joshi, who left the de Blasio administration in March, joined the What’s The [Data] Point? podcast from Citizens Budget Commission and Gotham Gazette to discuss her tenure, the taxi industry and key steps she spearheaded to regulate it, and what’s next for app-based for-hire vehicle companies like Uber and Lyft.

The introduction and explosion of those ride-hailing apps has shaken the overall for-hire vehicle industry, disrupting the traditional taxi sector in New York City and beyond, and creating new challenges in terms of street congestion, driver working conditions, and more. In two years, the number of for-hire vehicles in New York City grew 59% and they now outnumber yellow and green taxi cabs my many thousands, having surpassed taxis in 2017, according to TLC data. As of last year, there weree 13,587 licensed yellow cabs in the city, along with 3,570 green cabs, and 107,435 app-based for-hire vehicles.

New York's property taxes are not only among the highest in the nation, but they're also complicated.

This year, they are becoming even more complex, due to new wrinkles in the state's school tax rebate (STAR) program for homeowners that were stitched into the state budget.

STAR has been in effect since 1999 and now drives some $3.4 billion a year in exemptions and rebates to property owners.

While the initial rationale for STAR was to cushion taxpayers from New York's high property taxes, some say the abrupt changes are bound to leave homeowners confused over the amendments.

David Friedfel, director of state studies for Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog organization, predicted many taxpayers will be greatly displeased by the new approach.

"For people who currently get the STAR benefit as an exemption on their property, if they don't make a change, their STAR benefit will be frozen in time, and their savings will be frozen in time at the same amount," Friedfel explained. "But if they switch to the new program, where they get a check back, then it will grow by 2 percent a year."

The subway (plan) is delayed again.

While subway service has improved since the nadir that led to the current (and controversial) “state of emergency,” it’s obvious to anyone who rides the system enough or just watches the New York City Transit Twitter feed that there’s still a ways to go before everything is at or near full strength.

But while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) needs a funding stream that’s sustainable and long-term, the authority has been unable to spend many billions of dollars already appropriated to it by both the city and state, money that’s supposed to be spent on expansion projects, getting the trains to a state of good repair, and more.

In other words, there’s plenty of money in the MTA capital plan, it may just be in the wrong hands.

Maria Doulis of the Citizens Budget Commission explained that the agency could continue with business as usual, dragging out this plan for years. Another scenario is that in Governor Cuomo’s many desired reforms for the agency, the current capital plan could be capped at the projects being worked on at the moment and then rejiggered for the 2020-2024 plan “that will incorporate some of the projects that were previously there, or maybe drop some of them out,” Doulis said. “And in that scenario, the state’s $8 billion doesn't get used, and then the state can sort of rededicate it if it would like, to the new capital plan.”

A rollover like this is also a concern for Fauss. “The real question is going to be what happens to those individual projects, what's going to roll over, and our fear is that that commitment is just going to get shoved over to the next plan. Because they're not fully funded for the 2020-2024 plan,” she told Gotham Gazette.

An analysis from Citizens Budget Commission showed that thanks to recently enacted legislation around congestion pricing, an internet sales tax, and a real estate transfer tax on expensive properties, there will be $25 billion for the MTA to put in a capital plan lockbox.

The nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission released a report detailing the possibilities presented by a “vehicle-miles traveled fee.”



One persistent debate throughout every budget season is how much money should be allotted to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state authority that operates such transit systems as the New York City subway. This year, lawmakers agreed to pass congestion pricing – a new funding source that is expected to raise about $1.5 billion per year – to provide a $15 billion boost to the transit agency. In doing so, New York City will become the first municipality in the country to introduce congestion pricing. But some are already looking for the next option for funding the city’s vast transportation needs.



On Wednesday, the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission released a report detailing the possibilities presented by a “vehicle-miles traveled fee,” which would collect revenue from road users based on how many miles they travel. While the CBC lauds the passage of congestion pricing, the report calls for the adoption of the fee to fund outstanding transportation needs across the state, like upkeep of New York’s roads and bridges.

Hinting that there may be no early budget agreement this year, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said the council was insulted that Mayor Bill de Blasio ignored its suggestions when presenting his latest budget proposal.



On the first day of Finance Committee hearings on the $92.5 billion executive budget for fiscal 2020, Johnson took the Administration to task for disregarding the Council’s response to the budget the mayor released last month.

About $916 million in savings were found in the executive budget from city agencies under the newly instituted program to eliminate the gap, or PEG.



On Monday, Dromm said it was surprising that the PEG was instituted to guard against possible hard times ahead, but that no extra money was allocated to boost the city’s reserves.



“When the Administration announced a mandatory PEG this year, the Council was hopeful that the mayor was finally getting serious about reigning in inefficiencies in spending. To quote the Citizens Budget Commission ‘the PEG is in-line with the Administration’s prior savings programs and a majority of this savings are from expense re-estimates, increased revenues, funding shifts and debt service savings rather than from improve efficiency.’ ”

A top ally of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Larry Schwartz, demanded an emergency MTA board meeting to examine the troubled authority’s ballooning overtime costs, following a string of reports in The Post that highlighted the issue.



The MTA spent $1.3 billion in overtime in 2018, up more than $100 million from $1.2 billion the year before, with some employees at the Long Island Rail Road making more than $300,000 a year in overtime alone last year.



“Given the new legislative authority and management responsibility passed in the recent state budget and the forensic audits we must perform, I think it is imperative that we call an emergency board meeting to take place in the next several days to be briefed on the matter and decide a path forward,” Schwartz, a member of the MTA board, wrote Wednesday in a letter to the agency’s newly minted chairman Pat Foye.

A recent report by the Citizens Budget Commission found that the MTA could say $86 million a year if it could run the LIRR as efficiently as MetroNorth, which serves New York’s northern suburbs.

So, Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief executive Pat Foye’s decision to study overtime regulations, claims and payments, along with how work hours and attendance are verified, is crucial.

But the overtime story unfortunately is part of a larger picture of dysfunction that’s expected to crystallize in the coming months:

No effort to reform the nation’s largest public transit system will succeed without significant changes to its union contracts, including work rules, pay and guidelines that allow excess overtime to pad pensions.
This is the time to make those changes. Most of the MTA’s 74,000 employees are governed by collective bargaining agreements that expire this year. That includes the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, which represents LIRR conductors, track workers, and more, and the Transport Workers Union, which represents subway and bus workers.

A report by the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission, which studies state and New York City finances, painted a dreadful picture of the MTA’s fiscal outlook, showing annual deficits approaching $1 billion by 2022. The commission argued correctly that labor costs, expected to reach more than $10 billion this year, must be controlled. The commission said MTA wage growth has outpaced that of other public unions, while worker contributions to benefits are lower than those made by other state employees and nonunion MTA workers.

If one can use the word “subdued” when discussing a $92.5 billion budget proposal that includes $3.3 billion in increases, Mayor de Blasio projected that image last week when releasing his executive spending request for 2019-20.

But the document almost immediately drew sharp criticism from the City Council leadership as well as the Citizens Budget Commission watchdog group, both of which said the proposal falls short of their expectations.

Andrew Rein, president of Citizens Budget Commission, also said the mayor’s proposal is troublesome, partially because of structural problems.

“Mayor de Blasio’s stay-the-course budget does not take the steps needed to preserve services or forestall tax increases in the eventual hard times,” he said in a statement issued by the organization.

Rein said first that city-funded spending increases roughly by 3.6 percent, “which is lower than the Administration’s prior average 4.6 percent increase. The highly anticipated Program to Eliminate the Gap provides savings, but fails to deliver resources needed to address any upcoming downturn.”

Rein said a majority of the savings are from “expense reestimates, increased revenues, funding shifts, and debt service savings, rather than from improved efficiency.”

Rein did credit de Blasio for continuing his practice of funding contingency and reserve line items at higher-than-mandated levels, or $1.25 billion.

“However, this amount pales in comparison to a potential $15 billion to $20 billion three-year revenue shortfall that a recession could drive,” he said.

The MTA’s overtime expenses reached a stunning $1.3 billion last year — a 16 percent increase over 2017.

And while many of the highest-paid workers and biggest overtime earners were Long Island Rail Road workers, MTA chief executive Pat Foye has ordered an agencywide study of overtime regulations, claims and payments, along with how work hours and attendance are verified.

That’s crucial. But the overtime story is part of a larger picture of dysfunction that’s expected to crystallize in the coming months: No effort to reform the nation’s largest public transit system will succeed without significant changes to its union contracts, including work rules, pay and guidelines that allow excess overtime to pad pensions.

Most of the MTA’s 74,000 employees are governed by collective bargaining agreements that expire this year. That includes the Transport Workers Union, which represents subway and bus workers.

A report by the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission, which studies state and NYC finances, painted a dreadful picture of the MTA’s fiscal outlook. The commission argued correctly that labor costs must be controlled, noting that MTA wage growth has outpaced that of other public unions, while worker contributions to benefits are lower than those by other state employees and nonunion MTA workers. And while some overtime is necessary, excessive costs raise serious concerns about the MTA’s fiscal stability and a culture that allows senior workers to take the spoils. And where in the stew is the safety of the employees, who put in punishing hours and do risky work?

New York City’s housing market is unlike any other. Apartment development can hardly keep apace with the city’s booming population; tens of millions of tourists flock increasingly to the city’s landmarks, driving demand for home-shares masquerading as rental units; and international buyers, hedge funds, and private equity firms view the city’s real estate as a prime asset class more than ever.

Now, in an attempt to tackle the affordability crisis, our lawmakers in Albany are irrationally focusing not on the macro forces that are making the city so expensive, but on the individuals and companies that have improved the safety and quality of the city’s private rental units for decades.

Since the 1970s, the improvement to the city’s housing stock has been a success story. Apartments in good or excellent condition jumped 20 percent from 1978 to 2017. And families that live on blocks with boarded or broken windows decreased by nearly 90 percent during the same period, according to the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey.

Indeed, this sustained progress stands in stark contrast to NYCHA homes. Whereas private owners, particularly of rent-regulated units, are incentivized to make improvements to affordable homes, NYCHA’s landlord – the City of New York – is not. In fact, according to the Citizens Budget Commission, from 2016-17 private rental homes saw a decrease in physical deficiencies across every single category, including leaks and heating breakdowns. At the same time, problems with NYCHA increased in nearly every category – a vivid display of the human cost associated with disinvestment in New York City housing.

Transportation authority’s belt-tightening efforts come into play as deadline looms for union-contract talks

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is clawing its way out of a looming fiscal crisis by raising fares, securing new sources of revenue and reorganizing operations. Now, it has the chance to cut into its biggest operating cost: labor.

An MTA spokesman said the agency looks forward to continuing discussions with the union, “which come at a time of extraordinary financial difficulty for our agency. We need to address these challenges, and all options must be on the table.”

Those options should include labor concessions, according to a report released April 30 by the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, which suggested that the MTA can save hundreds of million of dollars if the union accepts changes to benefits as well as increased productivity targets.

A new report by a fiscal watchdog group calls on the MTA and its unions to work together in their next contract negotiations to reduce skyrocketing labor costs that are on pace to consume three-fifths of the agency’s operating budget.

The report, titled “Reform at the Bargaining Table,” from the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission, or CBC, provides several recommendations on ways to shrink labor costs while still offering fair raises to workers, including by offering incentives for increased productivity, requiring union workers to contribute more to their health insurance plans, and changing work rules that force the MTA to make “penalty payments” for certain assignments.