NY Metro Coronavirus Relief: 78%, 19%, 3%

Following sometimes contentious negotiations arbitrated by the Federal Transit Administration, the three states touching the New York Metropolitan area—New York, New Jersey and Connecticut—finally agreed on how to allocate $13.98 billion in Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 (CRRSAA) and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the New York MTA, NJ Transit and Connecticut DOT.

The three states, represented by their governors, agreed on a 78%-19%-3% split: $10.85 billion to NYMTA (Long Island Railroad, Metro-North, NYC Transit), $2.66 billion to NJT, and $474 million to ConnDOT. Governors Kathy Hochul (New York), Phil Murphy (New Jersey) and Ned Lamont (Connecticut) on Nov. 9 announced the “suballocations of extraordinary federal emergency relief funding apportioned to the region by Congress to mitigate the historic pandemic-related losses in transit system ridership and revenues.”

“This funding recognizes that the tristate area was among the hardest hit by the pandemic and provides the resources necessary for the nation’s largest subway, commuter rail and bus services located in these states to avoid layoffs, furloughs and severe service reductions,” the governors said in a joint statement. “These transit agencies ensured essential workers could be where they were needed most, and this funding will help support their longer-term recovery and sustainability.”

All three, as expected, thanked each other, President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and their respective Congressional delegations for obtaining the funding. Hochul—whose more measured, collaborative style, compared to that of her predecessor Andrew Cuomo, helped break the logjam, it is believed—referred to “a series of productive conversations with my fellow governors” that resulted in “an agreement that is beneficial to all.”