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Comptroller plans audit of the MTA

By Matthew Sweeney | msweeney@am-ny.com

6:56 PM EDT, July 27, 2008

State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is hoping to put the brakes on a fare hike by auditing the MTA and uncovering ways the agency can further trim its budget.

"When we conduct an audit we say what are the biggest risks what are the greatest potential for savings," said Dennis Tompkins,a spokesman for the comptroller. "Comptroller DiNapoli believes that before we raise fares for commuters the MTA should look at every possible efficiency and economy to make sure they get the most bang for the bucks they have now."

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority last week proposed an 8 percent increase in fare and toll revenues starting in July of next year to help cover an estimated $900 million hole in its 2009 budget, which totals $11.2 billion. Another increase of 5 percent would follow in 18 months under the MTA's preliminary budget plan covering 2009-12.

Commuters were already dealt a fare hike this year, taking effect in March.

DiNapoli will release an initial report on the MTA's books by September and will likely follow up with additional investigations.

"We're in the process of determining what scope the audit or series of audits will take," Tompkins said.

MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin said the agency welcomes DiNapoli's input. In an e-mail statement, he pointed out that the MTA is already in the midst of paring its budget by 6% over the next four years.

"We've taken transformative steps to make the MTA a leaner organization, integrating our three bus companies into one, beginning to implement a back-office shared services program that will save $40 million annually, and expanding a general manager program that will significantly cut layers of management at NYC Transit," Soffin said.

Despite recent attempts at savings, the state-authority has often come under fire for its troubled finances. Last August, DiNapoli called on the MTA to put off this year's fare increase until congestion pricing had been considered. He argued that the MTA did not need a fare increase to balance its 2008 budget.

In 2004, the then-comptroller Alan Hevesi's office issued a report stating the MTA had unwisely borrowed heavily and buried itself in ballooning debt, while keeping more than 2,000 redundant positions.

In 2003, another Hevesi audit of the MTA accused the agency of keeping two sets of books, one of which presented a dire picture to back the agency's request for a fare hike.

Also in 2003, City Comptroller William Thompson attempted to forestall a proposed fare hike by releasing an audit of NYC Transit's finances that accused the agency of muddy bookkeeping by placing capital expenditures and interest on debt into its operating budget.