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ALBANY — Republican state lawmakers want the MTA’s head honcho to resign after he brushed off New Yorker’s concerns about subway crime — as questions swirl over the flailing agency’s chaotic financial picture.
Eleven state Senators said Wednesday they want Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chair and CEO Janno Lieber to step down. If he won’t go on his own, then Gov. Kathy Hochul should step in and forcibly remove him.
“Janno Lieber has lost the trust of commuters,” Long Island state Senator Steven Rhoads (R-Nassau) said at a news conference in the state Capitol.
“Janno Leber has lost the trust of our conference,” Rhoads went on. “In general, Lieber has lost the trust of New Yorkers and the people who live, work and raise a family here.”
Lieber has faced growing scrutiny since the Sunday rollout of an unpopular $9 congestion toll to drive into Midtown Manhattan, as state legislators return to Albany expecting to debate even more taxes and fees to fund the MTA’s massive capital plan.
Lieber enraged many Big Apple residents with a Monday appearance on “Bloomberg Surveillance” where he trumpeted that transit crime was down 12.5% in 2024 compared to five years earlier, before the COVID-19 shutdown.
The comments came despite a series of terrifying subway crimes that were shocking — and random — in nature, including an incident where a sleeping woman was lit on fire and burned to death on a Brooklyn F train in plain view of terrified commuters.
But Lieber called the overall “stats” positive.
“Some of these high-profile incidents, you know, terrible attacks have gotten in people’s heads and made the whole system feel unsafe,” he said.
Despite some of the other numbers, murders hit a 25-year high last year with 10 in 12-months while there were 579 felony assaults, according to NYPD data.
Rhoads said at Wednesday’s news conference that Lieber thinks “we have a perception problem.”
“We don’t have a perception problem,” Rhoads said. “Our commuters don’t have a perception problem. We have a deception problem. A deception problem on the part of the governor, a deception problem on the part of Janno Lieber.”
State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) said calling for the resignation of someone was not something he nor his colleagues took lightly.
“We are asking for something that we believe is very necessary for the well-being of the people of the state of New York, especially for those who live in the MTA region,” Lanza said.“ We believe that under these circumstances it is very warranted.”
Several of those metaphorically calling for Janno’s head cited a New Year’s Eve publicity stunt celebrating the implementation of the congestion toll, which is slapped on drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street.
“The tone deaf celebration of the congestion pricing cash grab was the nail in the coffin as far as I’m concerned and as far as my residents in Rockland are concerned as well,” Hudson Valley state Sen. Bill Weber said. “Congestion pricing is wrong. It needs to be repealed,”
The other senators calling for Lieber’s ouster include Sens. Mario Mattera (R-Suffolk), Dean Murray (R-Suffolk), Patricia Canzoneri-FItzpatrick (R-Nassau), Jack Martins (R-Nassau), Rob Rolison (R-Dutchess), Alexis Weik (R-Suffolk), Steve Chan (R-Brooklyn) and Anthony Palumbo (R- Suffolk). They are all in the region of the state served by the MTA.
An MTA spokesperson scoffed at lawmakers’ call.
“Under Chair Lieber’s leadership, the MTA has added service, opened new terminals and provided record on-time performance for their constituents on Long Island and the Hudson Valley, while delivering the most reliable subway service in a dozen years,” said John McCarthy, MTA Chief, Policy and External Relations. “But apparently none of that prevents out-of-touch politicians from bloviating,”
The state is grappling with the MTA’s proposed $68 billion five-year capital plan. The agency approved the plan last fall even though it remains to be seen how $33 billion will be funded.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) was the latest to acknowledge that Albany will likely have to consider raising taxes or fees to pay for the gap, something Hochul’s budget director acknowledged in November.
“I assume raising revenue will absolutely be on the table,” Heastie told Spectrum News’ Susan Arbetter in an interview Tuesday.
But the unpopular governor herself is refusing to admit the same. On Monday, she said it was up to the legislature to propose how to fill the $33 billion funding gap.
Her office has declined to say whether she’ll even publicly release a plan at all ahead of state budget negotiations where a deal is most likely to be worked out.
Sources tell The Post that Hochul is considering floating a hike to the payroll mobility tax behind the scenes.