What’s Not To Worry About?

Is it that the MTA is using capital funds and going into debt to accomplish routine maintenance? Is it that its supposed budget surpluses are total book cooking*? Is it the fact that they won’t finish fixing subway stations until 2026? Take your pick:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has fallen so deeply into debt that it relies on borrowed money to repair its buses, subways and commuter rail systems but still cannot keep them adequately maintained, a report released yesterday revealed.

The report, issued by the non-profit Citizens Budget Commission, said the MTA has operated at a deficit 13 of the past 14 years and would likely have to raise fares 30 percent or more to balance its budget. The deficit currently stands at $2 billion, according to the commission.

“It’s not trivial; these are big deficits each year,” said commission executive vice president Charles Brecher at a conference in Manhattan to announce the report.

While MTA executive director Katherine Lapp, who also attended the conference, did not dispute any of the commission’s figures, she said the agency has made great strides financially in recent years. The existing debt, Lapp said, results largely from past deficits and current rising pension and health costs.

To create the appearance of yearly surpluses, Brecher said the MTA removes routine maintenance costs from its operating budget and places the cost into its capital budget, a separate pool for funding new transit projects.

As a result, two-thirds of the capital funding borrowed from state and federal governments goes to regular upkeep — not capital projects, the report said.

Fully restoring the MTA’s transit systems, or bringing them to a “state of good repair,” will take years, Brecher said. The Long Island Rail Road, for instance, will not complete repair on its infrastructure until 2014. Metro-North stations won’t be brought to full repair until 2020. And city subway stations will not be restored until 2026, according to the report.

*And thanks, by the way, for reminding us about the total unmitigated idiocy of that holiday fare special.