Disgrace...

It’s no secret that Gov Cuomo had an opportunity to host his favorite type of ribbon cutting for the opening of the second span of the new Tappan Zee Bridge. 

Cuomo administration essentially bribed contractors to rush the finish of the span so the Governor could host the opening.

In a way, it’s a perfect metaphor for Cuomo who governs by press release and ribbon cuttings.  

After nearly eight years of Gov. Cuomo, it’s become abundantly obvious that his disdain of public transit (and its riders) is a feature and not a bug.   

After two terms of this attitude toward transit, it’s clear that no matter the absurd gaslighting campaign from the TWU, no matter his supposed support for some congestion pricing plan, Andrew Cuomo doesn’t care about the subways and isn’t going to be the one to save them. 

He’s sucked all the oxygen out of the room arguing over the legal technicalities of control over the subway and the allocation of money. He’s spent years siphoning dollars away from the MTA’s budgets, whether for state-run ski slopes losing money or road projects.

He has constantly refused to sign lockbox legislation that would put stringent strings on his MTA budgetary sleight-of-hand, and he barely endorsed Andy Byford’s Fast Forward plan until his lack of support was on the verge of becoming a political albatross.

Meanwhile, on his watch, as we all know, progress at the MTA has slowed to a crawl.

But on Cuomo’, delays and problems have become daily occurrences as ridership has shown year-over-year declines for the better part of his second term in office. These trends are not stopping without significant cost reform and investment, and Cuomo hasn’t embraced either yet.